The Tale of Two Demons
by 83doz
Summary: Naruto is currently training under the sennin, Jiraiya. To Jiraiya's surprise Akatsuki has just attacked a jinchuruki. Time is running short for our hero, he has to rescue Sasuke and take care of Akatsuki all in the upcoming years. NarutoXYugito, but min
1. Ch 1:Demon's Blood

The Tale of Two Beasts 

Author: 83doz

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.

Summary: Naruto had just lost to Sasuke at the VotE and is now the student of the legendary sennin, Jiraiya. 

_Italics_ are characters thinking to themselves.

Hi all, this is my first fan-fiction that I'm writing so be nice alright. Criticism is good, but no flaming please. Also, I'm not good at writing battles. Reviews are good. I like reviews. Ok, I'm not Japanese so I'm pretty sure I butchered the names because I'm just using a translator. It'll good if someone gives me the right names. Anyways, on with the story. Oh don't worry the two shinobis in the beginning they have names. It'll appear later in the story.

**Chapter 1: Demon's Blood**

Timeline- 1 year after the battle at Valley of the End.

Naruto and Jiraiya were far away from Konoha. They were in the middle of a green field about that was about 100 meters with many trees surrounding it. This made it a good training spot. If they wanted to just practice strictly taijutsu they can do it in the middle of the field. But, whenever they wanted to practice their movement and dodging skills, they can do that in the trees because it would be harder to dodge projectiles when you couldn't see the opponent or where the projectile is coming from. Plus, most ninjas use trees as hiding places and for stealth. Today though, they were practicing a new ninjutsu.

Naruto was on the ground panting from exhaustion and over usage of charka. He was practicing the new ninjutsu that Jiraiya thought him.

"Naruto," Jiraiya stated in a commanding tone, "that's enough for today, if you don't stop you might burn yourself out and won't be able to train tomorrow."

_Even if he does have the Kyuubi in him, he's been training since 9 o'clock this morning, he is not the Kyuubi and therefore can still overexert himself. The only time he stopped was today was to eat. Let's see, it's about 8, so he's been training for almost 11 hours straight, _Jiraiya thought.

"No, ero-sennin I must get stronger," Naruto struggled to say in a low and weak voice.

"Stop call me that boy, call me something like sensei," Jiraiya responded with a glare. Naruto just smiled and said, "Well, it's true."

Just as Naruto started to perform his jutsu again, "Doton Yo—" he heard a huge crash about a half of a mile away.

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Half mile away from Naruto and Jiraiya.

"So, guess you're already here Hidan?" Said the young ninja.

"Shut-up, just hand over the girl and you won't get hurt boy, I don't have time to be playing games with you," said Hidan in a very cocky voice.

"I know that you're strong, but you can't take us both on. You're by yourself, what odds do you have? Be smart and just leave," said the young boy seriously.

"Hahaha, was that a joke? You sure know how to make a guy laugh. Guess what, since your so proud of your fighting skills I won't even use ninjutsu or genjutsu. I'll purely use only taijutsu and kinjutsu," Hidan said mocking them.

"You must be kidding, you know can't beat us using only taijutsu and kinjutsu," the young boy shinobi replied.

"If he wants an early death, then that's his choice," said the young girl shinobi in an emotionless voice.

"Oh, so the girl talks, wanna try me then?" Hidan answered back. Just as he said that he pulled out his weapon, a very large three bladed Scythe. Hidan started running at the girl at full speed. _He's pretty fast_ the girl thought_, but his weapon is too slow to hit me. I can dodge his weapon all day if he's just using taijutsu and kinjutsu._ Hidan swung his scythe from above in a diagonal direction. The young girl shinobi dodged his attack easily by jumping into the air. Just as she did this her other teammate started doing handseals and shout "Raikou Go Tama no jutsu." (5 Shot Lightning) Five lightning bolts shot out of his hand and started to home in on Hidan. After his attack Hidan felt something coming from behind him and so turned around to see five lightning bolts coming at him with tremendous speed. _Damn, they're fast_ Hidan thought _I won't be able to dodge them._ Hidan put up his hands to block the incoming attack. Just as he was in his blocking stance he felt a kick to his back, which made him lose his defensive stance and take in the five bolts straight on. Hidan fell to the ground.

"Forgot about me?" said the girl.

"Told you, you can't win with just taijutsu and kinjutsu," the man said as Hidan slowly got up. The young shinobi was at Hidan's left side about 30 yards away while the girl was at Hidan's right side about 20 yards away, leaving Hidan in the middle.

"Hahaha, I agreed to using taijutsu and kinjutsu only and you decide to use ninjutsu. What weak asses, hahaha. But, it doesn't matter because that was nothing anyways, I took that shot on purpose. And to tell you the truth, it was pretty weak. If that's all you have I might as well just be using taijutsu so that I can have more fun. But, I want to end this earlier so I'll stick to my previous agreement, only taijutsu and kinjutsu," said Hidan.

"We know you didn't take that shot on purpose Hidan. Do you think your bluff would work on us? You must be underestimating us," said the young girl.

"Believe what you want girl, you'll see what I mean," Hidan said. "Ready now?"

Hidan threw three shurikens straight at the girl. She dodged them with ease. She knew it was just a distraction though. As she dodged them she saw Hidan run up again. _What is he doing? He's doing the same attack again only this time adding shuriken use in the beginning. He should know that it won't work against me._ Hidan swung in the same diagonal strike. As he did, the girl easily evaded the attack the same as before by jumping up into the air. As she did this Hidan threw his scythe straight at her. To her surprise the scythe was attached to a rope. _This still won't work against me_ she thought. She easily dodged the scythe by doing a somersault in the air. As she was doing the somersault Hidan was already making handseals and shout, "Nenshou Howaido Hinotama no jutsu" (Burning White Fireball). A small concentrated white fireball shot from Hidan's mouth straight for the girl's chest. _Oh no, I can't dodge this _the girl thought. She immediately swung her right arm around to block it so that it wouldn't hit her chest. She immediately felt the impact of the jutsu on her upper arm. It burnt like hell and she didn't know if she could take much more of the pain. As she was thinking about her pain she heard a scream down low, "Look out from behind," her companion said to her. As she looked behind her, she saw the scythe coming back straight for her_. Shit, because of my pain, I forgot about the thrown scythe from before_. She attempted to dodge it, but the scythe managed to scratch the side of her stomach. Good thing that didn't hit her head-on or she would have been killed instantly. As the scythe came back to Hidan, he caught it easily with his right hand. He also stood there with a cocky grin.

"So, you've decided to use ninjutsu after all," said the young boy.

"Hahaha, of course dumbass, did you really think I wouldn't use it? I don't have this thing called honor. I will do whatever I need to get the job done. The speech was just to get under your skin," Hidan told him.

_Damn, I would have died if that jutsu hit me straight on_ she thought. _I won't be able to use any ninjutsu from now on. But, all is not lost my sensei is still here. We can still take him._

"Are you alright?" the young boy said to the girl.

"Yeah, I'm fine," responded the girl.

They were both on each side of Hidan again ready to attack.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you girl," said Hidan. "But, no you're not alright, it's over."

"Like I said before, don't think that your bluffs would work on us," the young girl said.

"I'm not bluffing," Hidan said. As he said this he licked the blood on his scythe. "Enough talk, I'll show you what I mean. 'Kirigakure no Jutsu' (Hidden Mist Technique)" Hidan said. As he said this, a very thick fog covered the whole battlefield.

"Why are you hiding, are you afraid? Don't think because we can't see you, we won't be able to defend ourselves. You should have had some information on our fighting style already from your group," the boy said. He didn't get an answer. _What was Hidan thinking? He knows that we can fight completely in the dark so why is he using fog to hide himself _the boy thought.

A few seconds later they heard Hidan say, "Release." As he said that the fog immediately lifted. Hidan was now standing on a weird symbol. It was a circle about six feet in diameter with a triangle inside. "The preparations are complete, I'll show you why I said it was over." To both of the other shinobis' surprise he stabbed himself on his leg. As he did this, the girl immediately fell.

"What the hell did you do? You bastard," the young boy said.

"Easy, as I take in pain, my opponent does also. That's why I said it was over," Hidan told him. As he said that he stabbed himself on the stomach and pulled it sideways ripping his stomach. The girl screamed in pain, blood pouring from her stomach.

"I'll never let you get away with this," yelled the young shinobi. He recklessly rushed forward.

_Hahaha, good_ Hidan thought_ just as I expected. Since he's mad, he'll make an error and when I get his blood also, this would be all over. _Hidan threw a kunai just to see his reaction to judge his rage. It even surprised Hidan when the young boy did not dodge the kunai. Instead cut his upper arm. _Even better _Hidan thought_ he's such in a blind rage that he didn't dodge the kunai. This girl must mean a lot to him. Hahaha, weak fool, those things will just get you killed on the battlefield. This would be even easier than I thought._ As the boy came closer, Hidan quickly ran right by his side and swung his scythe sideways. The boy dodged the attack by jumping and kicked Hidan right in the face which caused Hidan to be knocked ten feet back from the boy. _Well, he dodged that one. Did he just intentionally take the kunai to make me think he's in a blind rage? Hmmm, even though I miscalculated his anger, I can still see that he's mad so I still have the upper hand. _Hidan quickly got up and started swinging his scythe above his head. "Now boy, it's over," Hidan said. He threw the scythe at the boy, which the boy easily dodged to the left. _Not yet boy_, Hidan flicked his wrist and the scythe immediately went to the right and cut the boy across his chest. _Damn, _the boy thought_, how did he change such a huge weapon's direction so fast. I didn't expect that?_

_All I have to do now is get back in my circle and it's over,_ Hidan thought. As he was running back to his circle the boy immediately chased after him and punched him from behind. Hidan was hit so hard that he made a loud "BOOOOM," as he hit the tree face first. _I didn't think he would recover so fast after that strike. It wasn't a small wound after all,_ Hidan thought. _Even though that hit hurt, it doesn't matter, I've taken more pain than that and besides it's over._ As Hidan said this, he felt a familiar chakra coming towards the battlefield. It was two people's chakra, both of which he recognized. One belong to the legendary Jiraiya and the other to that brat with the Kyuubi. _Great, just great, right when it was about to be over. I won't be able to take them by myself if Jiraiya's is also here. Also we don't know how much that brat has grown. I might be able to take Jiraiya, but only one on one._

"Well boy, today is your lucky day. Seems like I'll be heading off. Next time we meet, you and that girl wouldn't be so lucky," said Hidan laughing while he was took off.

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Back at the training ground with Jiraiya and Naruto.

"Let's go," Jiraiya said. Naruto didn't need him to repeat himself. They started running in that direction to see what the commotion was. When they got there, there was two ninjas. One was wounded, though he didn't look seriously hurt. He had a deep cut across his chest and small cut on his upper arm, but that would not put him in immediate danger. But, they couldn't say that for the other ninja. She was on the ground with a big pool of blood around her. There was a very big burn mark on her entire right arm. It did not look good. Her arm was still sizzling with blood. Naruto guess she used her arm to protect herself from an enemy's fire jutsu. She was probably to late to avoid it and had to use her arm for protection so that it wouldn't hit any of her more vital parts. Naruto guessed she would have probably been dead if she was hit on a vital spot. There was also a stab wound on her left leg, which was the three inches wide which went through her leg. Even though these wounds weren't good they weren't the worst one. A big slash wound right across her stomach caused most of the blood lost. Naruto could tell she was just hanging by the thread.

"Jiraiya-sama, I'm so glad you're here, we have no time. As you can see we were attacked and I really need your help," the man stated to Jiraiya in a worried voice.

Naruto looked at the man who had long yellow hair to his waist, which was in a ponytail sort of like Jiraiya's, but very clean instead of messy. He also had blue eyes just like Naruto. He was wearing a short-sleeve black shirt with black shorts. The short wasn't really looses or really tight, it had just enough room for him to maneuver. From his elbows down he had tape his whole arm. His right leg was also taped in the same way. He wore his weapon pouch on his right leg. The forehead protector that he stated he was from the Hidden Village of Cloud. He was probably 16 or so judging by his looks. _He looks very young, but the way he talks with Jiraiya makes it seems like he knows him more on a personal level so I'm pretty certain that he's pretty strong,_ Naruto thought.

"Where's the nearest hospital?" Jiraiya questioned the young man.

"About a mile from here," responded the young man.

"You lead the way since you know the way and I'll carry the girl so you can go at your full speed. Hurry, let's go," said Jiraiya.

If this was a different circumstance Naruto would have made a smart remark like, "Ero-sannin we know why you want to carry the girl," but this wasn't the time for that. So with that the man led Jiraiya and Naruto to the nearest hospital.

As they got to the hospital she was immediately taken into the emergency room. They all waited patiently in the waiting room in full silence. In just five minutes, though it seemed like an eternity for the three other people, the nurse came back with a grim look on her face.

"I'm sorry," she said, "she has loss a lot of blood and we don't have any blood that can be used."

"What do you mean?" Naruto said in an angry voice, "Are you saying that you guys don't have any blood in a damn hospital. Fine, you can use one of us if you guys don't want to donate any blood. Blood is just blood, so take one of ours."

"I'm sorry," the nurse said, "it's not that we don't have any blood, it's just that there isn't any blood here that's compatible with hers."

Naruto looked confused. So with that the nurse continued to explain.

"Well, when you say blood is just blood, that's a mistake 'blood is not just blood.' You see, if the blood type does not match the original, the immune system of the original body will start to attack the donor's blood. The patient that you brought with you is a blood B type. Normally hospital's have this type of blood around, but as you can see this is a very small hospital in a small town and most of the inhabitants here have blood type AB or A. Even if we do have blood type B, it seems that she has a very special 'type' of blood."

Naruto looked at the Jiraiya and the young man sitting with Jiraiya. It seemed like they knew this information already. Why isn't the young man giving his blood? Aren't they related or something? _Damn_, Naruto thought, _maybe I was too quick to assume. Maybe they aren't related. Maybe, that's why the guy was so grim. This could be bad. Wait, _Naruto thought to himself trying to remember his medical records. He remembered looking at it before after the battle with Sasuke while he was in the hospital. Tsunade wouldn't him leave so he was bored and decided to look at his medical records to pass time._ Wasn't he, Naruto, a blood type B? Yes he was, maybe he could save the young girl._

"I'm a blood type B," Naruto said. "Take some of my blood."

"It's not just that," replied the nurse, "she has a very special 'type' of blood."

Naruto was getting mad, "Damn, I don't care, what other options do we have? We can't just let her die. This is the only chance we have so we're going to take it."

The nurse didn't want to explain to the angry young boy, so she just sighed and said, "Alright let's hurry."

After three hours the nurse came back into the waiting room where Jiraiya and the young shinobi was waiting. Jiraiya took a glanced at the nurse as she came, she looked a little happier than the first time. _This is a good sign _Jiraiya thought.

"She looks like she's going to be fine," the nurse said happily to Jiraiya and the young man. "She'll probably just need rest to heal her wounds which would take about a month or so. After that she'll be up and running again."

Jiraiya and the young man sighed.

They both immediately asked the nurse at the same time, "Where is her room?"

"Just go straight and make a right. It's the third door on the left." She responded.

When Jiraiya and the young boy got to the emergency room they saw Naruto on one of the bed and the young girl on another bed. Naruto put up his thumb and with smiled gave his fox-like grin.

"We should let them rest," Jiraiya said. "Besides it's 11 and we need rest ourselves."

"Right," said the young boy.

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The next morning came and Naruto was already up. He was sitting on a chair looking at the girl with extreme interest. _She was very pretty_, Naruto thought. Naruto didn't notice this from yesterday because it was dark and mainly because she was all covered in blood. But, today he could see her better because she was cleaned by the nurse. When he got a closer look he was shocked to see how someone that looked like her could be a shinobi. _Well, Sakura is a shinobi too, _Naruto thought. He resumed his examination of her. She had long yellow hair which ended just below her waist. Her upper body was small and petit, but her lower body sported a very curvy hip and long legs, but was still small overall. She was wearing a short-sleeve shirt which was looked pretty tight on her. The shirt was also short, ending about an inch above her bellybutton showing her stomach. Even though the sleeves on the right side was burnt off, Naruto assumed that it was also the same as the other side. The shirt was half-black and half white. Right above the chest it was all black, while right below it was all white. Well, actually it was red right now because the nurse still haven't changed her. She also wore a short which went just below her knees. It was also black. She wore tape around her arms and legs, sort of like someone Naruto knew (Sasuke). The most remarkable feature to Naruto was her eyes though. Even though Naruto haven't seen her open her eyes yet. He could see that it was slanted a little. It reminded him of a cat. He couldn't take his eyes off it and actually wondered if he would be able to once he actually saw them open. Naruto also figured that she was probably around his age.

"Naruto if you stare at her any longer with your piercing eyes, it's going to burn a hole through her," Jiraiya said giving a slight chuckle while standing in the doorway. He was there with the other shinobi.

Naruto jolted for a second because he didn't sense anyone, but immediately returned to his normal self. This didn't go unnoticed though either by Jiraiya or the young man. "Shut-up, ero-sennin, I was just wondering what she looked like because I didn't get a chance to see her yesterday, okay."

"Sure, Naruto I know what you're thinking," Jiraiya said.

"Shut-up I said, I'm not like you," Naruto angrily replied.

This just made Jiraiya laugh. The other man cut him off, "Thank you so much for saving my student. By the way my name is Kato. What is yours?"

"Nice to meet you Kato. My name is Naruto," he said. "I think you already know him," Naruto said in a disgusted tone while pointing at Jiraiya.

Kato just smiled, "Yes, I know Jiraiya-sama back from a long time ago."

"Anyways what happened and how did you guys get so injured?" Naruto questioned the young man, interested in what happened.

"Sorry Naruto, I truly am, even though you saved my student's life, I can't tell you who attacked us or for what reason. I don't have the authority to do so," Kato said.

This sort of shocked Naruto. I mean he did save his student right? Why couldn't he be told what happened? _I hate being in the dark, _Naruto thought. Kato saw how disappointed Naruto was. The truth was he really did want to tell the boy who attacked them and why, but it was for his protection and hers. If word got out that he told someone who was after them, the man in charge his village would not be happy. There are only a few people that should know. Luckily Jiraiya was one of them, since he was the one that told the Raikage about the group hunting them.

"Well Naruto, can you stay here and watch our guest? I don't think you'll mind," Jiraiya said snickering.

"Sure ero-sennin," Naruto responded. It took a second for his sensei's words to register through his brain, "Wait, what do you mean by that?" Naruto screamed at Jiraiya who had already left with Kato.

Jiraiya and Kato were on the rooftop. Jiraiya was leaning against a wall with his hands crossed while Kato was just standing there looking at Jiraiya.

"So, that's your student Jiraiya-sama?" Kato asked Jiraiya.

"Yes, that's Naruto the holder of the Kyuubi," Jiraiya answered Kato.

"He's different than what I would imagine," Kato stated.

Jiraiya wanted to change the subject to Akatsuki so he said, "So, they came for you guys already." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah, it's been only a year since you left with your apprentice and they've already came," Kato responded. "To tell you the truth I thought they would have probably came sooner."

"Why would you think that?" Jiraiya asked.

"Well, unlike Naruto, Yugito has almost complete control over her Bijuu," Kato said. "And you know how the theory goes, it's takes less time to extract a Bijuu when the person has more control over it. But, another problem is that they can't let the person get to much control or else they would have themselves a harder fight than they want. You see, they kind of have to balance it out. The Bijuu extraction theory sort of worries me because it might mean big trouble for your apprentice. For Yugito they might have sent only want to send a couple of members at the most, but if they wait until Naruto have almost complete control over the Kyuubi before they take him, they'll probably send the whole group. They would probably wait until he gets almost full control because if they got him now, then they'll have to be extracting it straight for eight years give or take two years. Even if Naruto does have full control over the Kyuubi I don't know if he can take on 10 Akatsuki members at the same time. The Kyuubi would be able to, of course, but not a human vessel. He's still limited."

"I see, we'll worry about Naruto later on, but how many people did they send for Yugito?" Jiraiya questioned the Kato.

"Well, I couldn't believe it myself, but they sent only one," Kato answered.

"Wow, they must be pretty confidence in their abilities," Jiraiya stated.

"I'm pretty sure they've already scouted our abilities and thought that he was sufficient enough for the job," Kato said. "It was because he stated that he would use only taijutsu and kinjutsu against us."

"And of course he didn't," Jiraiya adding in a comment.

"Of course not, they're Akatsuki, they won't care about honor or anything like that. But, still, stating that he would use taijutsu and ninjutsu only points to the fact that they've been scouting us," Kato said with a confused look. "I've never sensed anyone close to us when we were training. I don't know how they could have known."

"Well, Akatsuki does have other methods you know. Anyways who was the one that attacked you guys?" Jiraiya asked.

"It was Hidan," Kato answered. At that Jiraiya frowned. Hidan was one of the Akatsuki that he didn't have much information on. Mainly because Hidan was one of the newer members and wasn't notorious for anything that was real big. Unlike some members like Itachi-killer of the Uchiha Clan, or Kisame-Seven Swordsman of the Mist, or Sasori-Kazekage killer, Kakuzu-bounty hunter, Hidan liked to be in the dark more. This didn't matter much to Jiraiya though, he wanted to know more of Hidan's move and fighting style. At least he'll be getting some information on him now.

"What's his fighting style?" Jiraiya questioned Kato.

"Well, he uses a large scythe to attack. It's pretty slow, but it has a very large range and he also throws it. The scythe is attached to a rope so he can also change its direction real fast after throwing it. That was how I received my wound. Also, after getting an attack in he has does this weird ritual and attacks himself. I'm pretty sure that his technique requires the blood of the opponent because he didn't start his ritual until he had scratched Yugito. It does seem like he also damages himself when he attacks himself, but it seems like he doesn't care about his injuries."

"Immortal maybe?" Jiraiya asked.

"Maybe," Kato answered.

"Well, that's all there is in his attack style," Kato told Jiraiya.

Jiraiya frowned, _great another immortal guy that they had to face_.

"Well, I really do have to thank Naruto though because if you guys weren't here, Yugito would have died definitely even if I was able to get her to the hospital," Kato told Jiraiya.

"The blood transfusion right," Jiraiya said, more like a statement than a question.

"Yes, no one else could have done it," Kato responded. "Even though I'm her brother and we have the same blood she's a carrier for a demon. The only other blood than she can receive is another person that has a demon within them. Unlike the Kyuubi, the Nibi doesn't have regeneration power. She would have been doomed. Well, she would need a long rest to recover because of this fight."

Of course all the things about demon's blood and demons Jiraiya had already knew, but he let the young man tell him anyways. The young man probably felt good that he was of help to one of the legendary eannin.Jiraiya too, remember back when he would tell Sarutobi about information Sarutobi already knew. It made Jiraiya feel good when someone else would listen to his new knowledge even if it was old news to the listener. It was just the act of listening that made people feel better.

"Well, I feel real sorry for Naruto because I can't tell him all this. He probably hates me. I mean after all he did save Yugito's life and to be left out in the dark like that," Kato said in a sad tone.

Jiraiya laughed, "Don't worry about it. I know you can't tell people. I'm pretty sure that he's pretty mad, but just treat him to some ramen and he'll forgive you."

"Really?" Kato said with new hope. He liked making friends and didn't like to offend people, especially if he owed them something real big.

"Well, it might take more than a bowl or two, but he'll understand," Jiraiya said.

"Well, then I'll treat him whenever I can just to show my forgiveness, "Kato said excitedly.

_**Jutsus description:**_

**Raikou Go Tama no jutsu: 5 Shot Lightning- **(rank B) This is a jutsu where 5 lightning bolts are shot out from the users hands. Even though it's hard to block because the lightning strikes are fast and the user can control it, the damage is not very high.

**Nenshou Howaido Hinotama no jutsu: Burning White Fireball-** (rank A) A very hot fireball. They say that the temperature of a candle is around 1500 degree Celsius. As a flame gets closer to being white the hotter it gets. A white flame can go up to 3000 degree Celsius. This jutsu can cause major damage if it hits in the right place. The downside is that it's only about the size of a volleyball and therefore easy to dodge.

**Kirigakure no Jutsu: Hidden Mist Technique**- (rank D) The same as Zabuza's technique. Except Hidan doesn't use it to silently kill like Zabuza. Instead he uses it so he can get his ritual ready without the enemy knowing where he is. (This jutsu is in the manga)


	2. Ch 2:The Hidden Village of Cloud

**Chapter 2: The Hidden Village of Cloud**

Meanwhile back in the hospital room.

_Stupid Ero-sennin, _Naruto thought, _I'm not like his perverted ass._ Naruto was mad because Jiraiya didn't hear his last statement when he and Kato left. He was still looking at the girl on the bed, not as intensely this time. It has been five minutes since Jiraiya and Kato went outside, but five minutes of doing nothing seemed like an eternity for Naruto. _Hurry up, something happen. Stupid Ero-sennin and stupid Kato come back. This is boring stuff._ Just as he was thinking that he saw that the girl was waking up.

The girl felt a strong pain on her stomach. She could also feel her right arm in tremendous pain. Her leg was also in pain, though not as much as her stomach and arm. She just lied back down and looked to her left where she saw a young man sitting across from her. He had short yellow hair, probably about three inches or so which spiked in every direction and big blue eyes. He was probably a little taller than her, she guessed. She couldn't tell because he was sitting and she was lying down. What he was wearing though was the weirdest outfit she saw. He was wearing an orange jacket that was blue near the top and a bright orange pant. _Was he really a ninja?_ she thought. Judging by his forehead protector he was a ninja and he was from the Hidden Village of Leaf. _Do people in the hidden village of leaf all wear this?_ _I mean, it's not very good for camouflage. Maybe he's a very strong ninja who wore what they want because they can get away with it, _she thought to herself. She put that thought out of her mind though. What interested her the most were the marks on his cheeks, three whisker-like marks across his cheeks on each side. _Almost like a cat, no too short to be a cat, like a fox_ she thought. Judging by the way he was sitting and his restlessness, he probably watched her until she got better. Overall, she thought _what an interesting looking guy_.

Not knowing what to say she said, "Ummm, hello my name is Yugito. What's your name?"

Naruto snapped out of his day dream, "Oh hello, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. You're probably wondering what happened. Well, I was just practicing in the woods when me and ero-sennin heard a loud bang and decided to follow the source. When we got there, you were real injured, so me, ero-sennin, and Kato took you here to the nearest hospital." Naruto decided not to tell her about the blood transfusion because she might be freaked out if she found out that she was given some 'demon' blood.

Yugito then remembered her fight with Hidan and what happened. She was sure she was dead. _Maybe this guy is real strong. I mean, the only way I'm alive is if he killed Hidan right? Plus he already met Kato so I guess he can't be an enemy._

So with nothing else to say she ask, "So did you kill the guy that we were fighting?"

"No, he took off before me and ero-sennin got there." Naruto said with a sad smile. "But, we'll get him for sure for doing something like this to a person." _Well, it didn't matter _Yugito thought. _As long as I'm alive and they didn't get the Bijuu then it's okay._

"Well, I'm in your debt Naruto. I know this doesn't seem like much, but 'thank you," Yugito said with a warm smile.

This made Naruto blush a little. _What the hell's wrong with me_ thought Naruto. He quickly recovered before she noticed anything. "It wasn't a problem, me and ero-sennin were just there at the right time. I'm pretty sure anyone else would have done the same thing," Naruto said with a happy smile. _Actually no, _Yugito thought, _they wouldn't have done the same thing and maybe you wouldn't have done the same thing too if you knew what was inside of me._ But, for some weird reason she felt Naruto would have still did the same thing if he knew what was in her. This thought didn't matter though and she pushed it out of her mind. Naruto noticed the sad look on her face. "Sorry, did I say something wrong?" Naruto asked with a concerned look. Yugito, not knowing she had a sad face quickly put on a smile and said, "Oh sorry, it was nothing at all, I was just thinking of something."

"Okay," Naruto said. "Are you sure though?"

"Yes, I'm certain," Yugito relied in a happy tone.

Just then, Jiraiya and Kato returned back into the room. "Hello, I see that you are up miss," Jiraiya said.

Yugito didn't know this person so she said, "Oh hello, you must be the ero-sennin that Naruto was talking about."

After hearing this Jiraiya smacked Naruto real hard on the head.

"Owww, that hurted ero-sennin," Naruto said with an angry look in his face.

"Well, that's what you get for calling me that," Jiraiya responded.

"But, it's true," Naruto replied back in a loud voice.

"Well, anyways my name is Jiraiya and nice to meet you, miss…?" Jiraiya said.

"Oh, my name is Yugito," said Yugito. Jiraiya of course already knew this, but it would seem weird for him to know her name when he hasn't met her yet.

"Jiraiya, you mean 'the' legendary Jiraiya?" she questioned with a longer emphasis on 'the'.

"The one and only. How's that brat?" pointing and smirking at Naruto. Naruto justed frowned back at him and replied, "Still doesn't change a thing."

_No wonder why I was saved. This was Jiraiya, one of the legendary sennin, _she thought. _I've never seen him before and I have only heard of his name, but I don't know, he doesn't look that strong to me. Looks can be deceiving though, oh yes it can. Just take herself for example, she doesn't look all that strong, but she knew that she can beat most people._ After thinking this she concluded that this was indeed the legendary sennin. _So, her first intuition of the young boy must be right, he must be pretty strong. He is training with the sennin after all. But still even when you're strong, camouflage is still a good thing to have, _she thought. She really wanted to see just how strong he is.

Itching to find out how strong he was she asked Naruto, "Hmmm, if you don't mind me asking Naruto, how long have you been training with Jiraiya?"

"About a year now," Naruto responded, "why did you want to know?"

"Oh it's nothing, just wondering," Yugito answered.

Naruto thought that this was a pretty out of the blue question, but said nothing about it. But, Kato and Jiraiya knew what Yugito was thinking and just smiled. _So, he hasn't been training with Jiraiya for that long yet, _Yugito thought, _but still, Jiraiya must have seen something in that boy to teach him personally. Well, guess I'll never know._

"Oh I'm so sorry Jiraiya-same, where are my manners. I forgot to thank you for rescuing me," Yugito said politely.

"Don't sweat it," Jiraiya replied.

"Well, should we get something to eat, it's nearly 12 and I'm hungry," Kato broke the conversation between everyone. Remembering what Jiraiya had told him he said, "I say we should get some ramen. My treat, since you guys did kind of saved Yugito here."

Naruto didn't budge at this. He still kind of wanted to stay in the room, but didn't know why. _What the hell's wrong with me? _Naruto thought. _I want some ramen, but I also want to stay here for a while. Am I going crazy or something? It must be the blood transfusion effect, yes, that's what it must be, _Naruto concluded. Jiraiya noticed that Naruto wasn't his usual self. At the first word of ramen, Naruto would be happier than a kid that just received what they wanted for Christmas. _What's bugging our little friend? _Jiraiya thought to himself. Then it clicked, _Oh I see, I see. _He just smiled inside and said, "Yea, let's get going. You coming or what Naruto?"

"Of course, ero-sennin," Naruto replied.

"That sucks that you can't come with us Yugito," Kato said to Yugito.

"It's okay," Yugito said with a weak smile.

As Naruto, Jiraiya, and Kato was leaving, Yugito didn't know what she was feeling, but she sort of didn't want them to go. _Weird _she thought, _I've never had this feeling before. Must be the after effects of yesterday's fight, yes, that's what it must be._

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Ramen Shop.

As they prepared to order ramen, Naruto forgot all about his weird feelings in the hospital room. All he could think of now is ramen. _Hmmm, what kind of ramen? Pork, shrimp, beef, miso, chicken, so many difficult choices _Naruto thought. _Well, I guess I'll just have three bowls of each selection. Yes, that would work._

As their orders came, Naruto asked Kato some questions.

"So, how do you know ero-sennin, Kato-san? Didn't the Hidden Village of Leaf and the Hidden Village of Cloud have a huge war?" asked Naruto.

"Yes, Naruto that is correct. The Hidden Village of Leaf and the Hidden Village of Cloud were at war during the 'Great Shinobi Wars,' but I met Jiraiya after the war," Kato responded. "And even though we our nations were at war does not mean that the people would have to hate each other. I understand that Jiraiya-sama is just following his orders and he understands that I'm just following my orders. It doesn't matter though because I met Jiraiya-same after the war ended and when he became a wanderer writing his 'fantastic novels'."

Naruto snorted when he heard 'fantastic novels,' _fantastic, yeah right, more like perverted._

"Well anyways on to the story, it was back a couple of years ago and my mother was doing some shopping in town. Me and my father couldn't accompany her to the grocery stand because we were on a mission during that time. It was just a little after my graduation from the academy so my father was still sort of worried for me. Also we thought that nothing would happen because the grocery stand is so close to our home. That's when 4 ninjas grabbed my mom and took her to the alley. She was not a ninja so she couldn't do anything. They wanted to do some 'stuff' with her and that's when Jiraiya here showed up to stop them. We wanted Jiraiya to stay with us longer, but he insisted that he needed to do some research. We thanked him and he went on his way. Long story short, Jiraiya saved my mom and I owe him a lot for that. Luckily he was in Lightning Country at that time." _Even though Jiraiya's been coming around more lately, Yugito hasn't seen him until today. I don't think Jiraiya wanted her to know how he looked like. Probably so that Akatsuki won't know what he's up too. Even if Yugito doesn't talk, which I know she won't, people could have seen it all and word might spread reaching Akatsuki. This could damage his information system. I've also been seeing Jiraiya more lately because Akatsuki are slow putting their plans into motion now, _Kato thought. _I know it seems weird that I know him on a more personal level, but that's all that I can tell you, sorry kid. I haven't even told Yugito my relationship with Jiraiya._

Naruto thought it was pretty weird that they seem to know each other better than just a one time coincidence, but he pushed that out of his mind. "What were you doing in Lightning Country, huh, ero-sennin?" Naruto asked Jiraiya knowing the answer already.

"Just doing some research my boy, just some research," Jiraiya answered with a smile.

"Should have known," said Naruto ashamed at his sensei.

The three finished their meal and set back out to the hospital. When they got there, they went back to Yugito's room. Naruto and Jiraiya stayed for about five minutes when Jiraiya suddenly said, "Well, Naruto it's time to go train. Ready to go back?" When Naruto heard this he tried to think of something so that they could stay a little longer, but couldn't find an excuse. _Why did he want to stay longer anyways? _Naruto thought, _oh yea I forgot, it must be the stupid blood transfusion. I must get stronger so I can get Sasuke back and defeat Akatsuki._

As Jiraiya and Naruto left the room, Yugito said, "Thank you again Naruto-san and Jiraiya-sama." At this Naruto's heart jumped and he replied, "No, problem anytime." They started walking when they heard Kato's voice, "Jiraiya-sama can I talk with you for a minute in private?"

Jiraiya turned and said, "Naruto, wait here."

_Damn, lefted out in the dark again, _Naruto thought. This turned his previously happy mood because of Yugito's comment, into a slightly angry mood.

"You know Jiraiya, I have never seen my sister act that this before. She's never been like this around a person," Yugito said to Jiraiya. "It makes me happy that she can actually feel these things. I used to always wonder if she would ever feel anything like this. I mean she's been trained to be a shinobi ever since she was little because of her 'problem.' The only thing she knew was to be a shinobi, she was told to not have any emotions since she was little. She followed those rules for her whole life. She also didn't have any friends while growing up, but she did have a family. Well, you already know that all that remains is just me now, but she grew up with a family when she was little. Even though she was told right from wrong and followed it, she would just follow the rules of a shinobi and never show any emotions. Even I haven't seen any emotions out from her until today."

Jiraiya just smiled, "Yes, I know something odd about Naruto today also but, I think that we shouldn't press this or try anything funny. I mean they still got other problems on their hands with Akatsuki and the like. Another thing like this could send their minds out of control. If it happens they'll make it happen by themselves."

"Yes, I know, but I just wanted to tell you," Kato said.

"Yes, I'm know, but we gotta get going, okay see you in a while Kato," Jiraiya said.

"See you Jiraiya-sama," Kato said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time line: 8 months after the hospital scene

Jiraiya couldn't believe his eyes, but Naruto has almost learned every jutsu that's useful. What can he teach him now? Well, he could teach him genjutsu, but Jiraiya knew that he sucked at that also, so wasn't any point in trying to teach him if the teacher isn't an expert in it also. Then there's taijutsu. Jiraiya was pretty good in taijutsu, but he knew there were better people. It's not saying that his taijutsu sucked, he could keep up with Gai that's for sure, but he knew he wasn't the best. He wanted Naruto to get the best training he could get. Also, Naruto's fighting style suited Taijutsu more. His favorite move is still the Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) and with a real good taijutsu, this combo would be deadly. Jiraiya on the other hand liked to trap his opponents in ninjutsu's first or use it as a distraction and then use taijutsu if necessary. He made up his mind. Jiraiya didn't like it, but it was the only way. Who knows it might even make Naruto stronger after this happened. If this goes right he could get real strong. This might even make Naruto on even ground with him. Also, even though Naruto has been increasing dramatically, he still had one thing that held him back. Experience. Naruto wasn't tested on the field yet. Jiraiya was pretty certain that Naruto could handle it because he has shown remarkable missions success when he was in Konoha, but it still did not amount to much experience at all. With this in his mind he called over to Naruto.

"Hey Naruto," Jiraiya scream at a Naruto who was 30 yards away practicing his ninjutsu.

"What ero-sennin," Naruto screamed back.

"Come here," Jiraiya screamed.

Naruto went over to Jiraiya mumbling something while walking slowly along the way, "this better be good, I was still practicing."

"Well, you know how you want to bring back Sasuke and all that right," Jiraiya said.

"Well, yea of course," Naruto replied, not knowing where this was going.

"What does Sasuke have that you don't?" Jiraiya asked his student.

Naruto thought, _what did Sasuke have that he didn't? He never felt inferior to him so it can't be anything that has to do with skills. _Then it came to him, "The only thing Sasuke has over me for a shinobi is his Sharingan, which I can never get unless I pull a Kakashi which means I'll probably have to take it from Sasuke which I don't want to do," Naruto answered Jiraiya.

"Correct, also one of Akatsuki that is also after you have the Sharingan," Jiraiya added. Then he proceeded, "What's probably the only weakness that the Sharingan have?" Jiraiya asked his student.

Naruto thought to himself, _Weakness? Sharingan? Those two words did not go together in one sentence. _Then it hit him, he remembered seeing Lee beating Sasuke with taijutsu.

"Well, the only weakness that I have seen the Sharingan have is against Taijutsu. It would still be able to copy the movement, but if the person is not fast enough then their body won't be able react in time even if they saw it coming," Naruto answered.

"Correct," Jiraiya said smiling.

"You're going to teach me taijutsu?" Naruto asked happily.

"Well, not me, but I know a person who is a real good taijutsu expert, maybe even better than Gai," Jiraiya said.

_No way, _thought Naruto, _better than Gai-sensei at taijutsu. Wow, I have got to meet this person. He must be one hell of a fighter. Lee would probably argue that it can't be true. Hehe, can't wait to fight him._

"Let's go meet him then," Naruto said happily. His only two thoughts were: _a person who might be better in taijutsu than Gai teaching me taijutsu and his other thought, I wonder what he looks like. An old man? A girl? A real buff guy?_

"Well, then you ready to go, it'll probably be a month or so from here if we walk, if we run it'll probably take 1 week or so," Jiraiya stated.

Then the boy and his sensei took off.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time line: 2 weeks later

_Stupid ero-sennin, stopping at the local bathhouses, _Naruto thought. _We could have been there a lot sooner._

"Are we there yet?" Naruto asked his sensei.

"Yes, you see that mountain, it's near the top of the mountain," Jiraiya said to his student.

_You must be joking, _Naruto thought. He looked at the mountain. This mountain was huge. It must have been 30,000 feet high Naruto estimated. And plus, he saw dark clouds with lightning strikes coming every minute or so. _This was not good, could he even reach the guy before he died? _Naruto thought to himself.

"Don't tell me your scared now Naruto? What happened to the brave ninja who never backs down?" Jiraiya said, knowing how to push Naruto's buttons.

As Jiraiya said this all of Naruto's fear went away and his courage step up, "of course not, I, Uzumaki Naruto will never back down from anything."

_He's so easy to manipulate _Jiraiya thought while smiling.

If he thought it was hard looking at the mountain it was actually harder climbing it. At first it was pretty easy Naruto thought. Then as they climbed in elevation Naruto found that he couldn't breath as well due to the low oxygen levels. He was starting to become light-headed, plus it was getting cold, and he wasn't thinking right. Another thing was those damn lightning strikes. Sometimes they would almost hit him and he would have to be agile enough to move out of the way.

"Hey, ero-sennin, couldn't we have just waited until the storm passed?" Naruto asked.

"Well, if you want to wait for an eternity than that's fine by me. This storm never stops," Jiraiya said.

As they continue Naruto was really losing it. He didn't know if he could keep going. Just when he thought he was out of chakra and oxygen he heard Jiraiya say, "We're here."

Naruto climbed up the cliff and saw a huge city. He couldn't believe it, there was a city in a place like this. The whole city was made out of a black material. _Could this be true, was it rubber?_ Naruto thought. _How did they shape it into such beautiful shapes?_ Unlike the buildings in Konoha, most of these these buildings had a cylinder base with an oversized teardrop on top. There were also white rods sticking out all over the place. Even though he couldn't see much he also saw dozens of white lights shining out of the windows. This elluminated the city into a small glow. It wasn't really bright, it just had a soft glow to it.

"What do you think?" Jiraiya asked his student.

Naruto couldn't answer, all he did was give a low 'amazed' type of whistle.

"Let's go," said Jiraiya.

As they reached the gate, they saw a shinobi standing guard. "State your purpose and reason for coming to the Hidden Village of Cloud?" said the guard.

"I'm Jiraiya and this is my student, Naruto, we are here to see a friend of mine," Jiraiya told the guard, "I'm pretty sure I gave him my message already."

"Proceed," said the guard.

As they started to walk Naruto asked his sensei, "When did you write to this friend?"

"When were at the bathhouses," Jiraiya said to Naruto. "All because it seems like I'm having fun doesn't mean that I'm not working. You probably thought that I just wanted to stay at the bathhouse right? Well, I was still waiting for the response from my friend."

With that Naruto felt guilty. _So this whole time he was working instead of just having fun. Man I got to stop judging him so harshly._

As they walked down the street they came to one of the bigger houses in the village. This one was three stories high and about as big as a house that he remembered back in Konoha. _Yea, this house was probably around Sasuke's house_ Naruto thought. Even though it was around the size of Sasuke's house it was completely different. It looked like just every other house on the street. It had the same cylinder base with an oversized teardrop on the top.

Jiraiya knocked on the door. As the door slowly opened Naruto saw who the man was. It was Kato.

"What!? You never told me my next sensei was going to be Kato," Naruto yelled angrily at Jiraiya.

"Well, you never asked baka," Jiraiya answered back.

"I just thought that a master of taijutsu and kinjutsu would you know, be a little older," Naruto said in a low tone.

"Looks can be deceiving can't they," Jiraiya said, "and don't be so disrespectful."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Kato-san," Naruto said apologetically.

"None taken Naruto-san," Kato said smiling.

"Well, I should get going now. Don't be so easy on him Kato, he can take it," Jiraiya mentioned to Kato.

"Don't worry I won't," Kato replied. "Bye Jiraiya-sama."

"Bye Kato, and see you later baka," Jiraiya said to Naruto.

With that Jiraiya left. As he was walking down the road, he was just thinking, _you know with this, I think it might actually work. He will become very strong no doubt. I just hope he doesn't get other things on his mind._

"Well, Naruto come in and make yourself at home. We have two open rooms and you can take either one," Kato told Naruto.

Inside the house everything was not made of rubber like Naruto thought it would be. The ground and walls were, but all the furniture was made of ordinary things. Right when he entered he saw the dining room. There was a medium size table right in the middle and four chairs, each a side of the table. Right after that to the right was a kitchen. It had all the usual things like a stove, refrigerator, an oven, and some a counter to chop food on. The living room didn't consist of much except a medium sized couch and two small single couch. There was also a bathroom with the usual things like a mirror and a sink with not much else. Naruto went to the second floor and saw four rooms, three bedrooms and a bathroom. Each of the bedrooms contained very little just like downstairs. Each bedroom had a bed, a drawer, and a closet. Overall, Naruto started to think that training was all Kato did. No wonder why he's a taijutsu expert. He went to the third floor which only consist of a rubber floor. This must be the dojo Naruto thought. Naruto was surprised when he saw another person there.

Yugito was still practicing when she felt a familiar yet different chakra in the air. She turned around and saw that it was Naruto.

"Oh hello Naruto," Yugito said trying to hide her joy. _What are you doing? _she thought, _ninjas aren't suppose to show any emotions_, "What are you doing here?"

_So, she lives with Kato. So, then they must be dating, _Naruto thought. When he thought about her possible relationship with Kato, his heart sank a little. _What was this feeling? Naruto never felt like this before. It was felt bad, even worse than when Sakura didn't want to recognize him. You have no time to be wondering about how you feel right now Naruto, _he thought to himself.

"Kato didn't tell you, I will probably be here for a year or so practicing taijutsu with him?" Naruto asked her.

"Actually no, he never mentioned anything like that," Yugito replied back to Naruto.

_Damn, in the dark again. These damn old people keeps putting me and other younger people in the dark. Well, Kato's not that much older than me, but why does he do that, _Naruto thought. As Naruto was thinking this Kato appear at the door.

"Oh, there you are Naruto," Kato said. "Well, since you didn't go around our village yet I think Yugito should show you around. Yugito, think you could show Naruto around for a little bit?" Kato asked her.

"Sure, let's go Naruto," Yugito said to Naruto.

With that they both went downstairs and left the house. As they went out the door Yugito led Naruto by going to her right. "Well, this is the hospital," Yugito said to Naruto and pointed to a large building on her right. It was also all black. The only thing that wasn't black was the windows and a huge red cross in front of the building.

They continued to walk a little further and they Naruto saw a shop and he was certain that it was a restaurant. With this knowledge, his stomach let out a loud growl. _Stupid stomach, _Naruto thought.

"Oh I forgot, you must be hungry climbing the mountain, let's get something to eat," Yugito said to Naruto.

They went to go sit. Naruto noticed that a lot of people were looking at them with cold eyes. He remembered those eyes from Konoha. It was not a pleasant thing to go through. _Do they know I have the Kyuubi in me? _Naruto thought. _Ero-sennin wouldn't have told them so why are they looking at me with such hatred and fear in their eyes?_ Little did Naruto know, those eyes weren't looking at him. They were looking at his companion accompanying him.

They took a seat and even though there weren't a lot of people Naruto noticed that it took forever for the waitress to even serve them.

_Damn, I forgot ero-sennin took all my money again and spent it at the bathhouse, _Naruto thought to himself. Naruto cursed ero-sennin in his mind.

Noticing something wrong with Naruto, Yugito said, "I'll get this one Naruto, I know you don't have that much money because you probably haven't been doing missions lately so it's okay. Don't worry about limiting yourself also, you see that we don't have much in the house so we just basically use money for necessary things."

Naruto sheepishly thanked her.

Naruto ordered ten different plates of ramen while Yugito ordered some rice and pork. _Wow, he must like ramen a lot, _Yugito thought.

There was an awkward moment of silence as neither teen made a move to speak.

Naruto felt this awkwardness decided to break the silence, "So, what kind of things are you into, Yugito? What are your dreams, hobbies, and stuff like that?"

_What a weird question, _Yugito thought, _No one has ever asked me that before. Ever since I was born all I remember was to be a good shinobi. I was here to be a tool, to die for my village if necessary, to make our village powerful. Dreams and ambitions were not to be thought about. Hobbies? There wasn't any time for that._

Interesting… 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_**No jutsu's this chapter**_


	3. Ch 3:Love Hurts?

**Chapter 3: Love Hurts???**

"Well, I don't have much hobbies or dreams. I just want to be a good shinobi so that my village can use me," Yugito answered him.

_What the hell? _Naruto thought. It wasn't the good shinobi part that made that surprised him. It was when she said 'use me' that made Naruto think, what the hell.

"You don't have any goals for yourself? You're only doing this for the village?" Naruto questioned her.

"Basically yes," Yugito replied.

"So you don't even want to be a shinobi?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I like to be a shinobi, but I don't have any time for anything else," Yugito replied. She felt like Naruto was making her think too much about how she was only a tool for the village. She didn't like that much, but what else can she do? She was born a shinobi and will die a shinobi.

"So, what are your dreams, hobbies, and stuff like that?" Yugito asked Naruto hoping that he would forget asking her questions. This worked for her.

"Well, right now I have a few goals. One of my goals is to rescue one of my teammate, Sasuke. He went to Orochimaru to gain more power and I promised that I'll bring him back no matter what and I always keep my promises," Naruto told Yugito. He had an angry look on his face when he said Orochimaru.

Yugito knew who Orochimaru was, I mean who didn't. She heard tales of the snake sennin and how strong he was. She also heard really bad rumors about his experiments and how he treats people. All in all she assumed he was a real bad shinobi, since he was also a Class-S missing nin.

"Well, wouldn't that make Sasuke a traitor?" Yugito asked Naruto a little confused that he would try to return a traitor. _Shinobis don't 'rescue' traitors of the village. They kill them on sight, _Yugito thought.

"Technically yes, but not to me, he's my friend and I will rescue him no matter what even if he is a missing nin," Naruto replied with a determined look on his face. "Even if my village won't accept me rescuing him then I'll become a missing nin myself if I have to."

_Strange, this boy has a bond with his friend. He's willing to become a missing nin just to rescue his friend. Didn't he know that most missing nins were killed on the spot? And he's willing to sacrifice his life for a friend that betrayed the villaged? _She thought that by making him talk that she would think about her situations less, but instead it made her think about her situation even more. _Shinobis weren't suppose to have bonds. If one of my former teammate went to another village or betrayed my village like that I wouldn't hesitate to kill them, _she thought. _Or would I? That hasn't happened to me yet now that I think about it._

"Well, when you go and rescue him, tell me okay, I want to help," this slipped out of Yugito's mouth before she even realized what she said._ What the… why did I say that? This was none of my concern. Did his value of friendship affect me too? Got to get the affection off. Why did I want to help him on his retrieval of his friend? Was it because he looked so determined when he said that he was going to rescue him? Please say no, so that you won't put me on the spot to decided later_, she hoped.

Naruto's face lit up and answered, "Of course, I'll send you a message whenever I go retrieve him. That's a promise."

_Damn, that's bad, now I'm stuck in a very bad situation. He also said "that's a promise." Unlike most shinobis I feel that he keeps his promises. I'll just hope he doesn't contact me or that he forgets when he goes, _she thought.

"My hobbies are training and ramen, yes I love ramen," Naruto continued interrupting her thoughts.

_Well, I can see that, _Yugito thought.

"Oh yea, I'm going to be Hokage one day, that's my main dream. I want to protect everyone in my village with my strength," Naruto said to Yugito thinking that she would laugh at his dream. To his surprise she didn't.

She just answered, "That's a nice dream, I wish I can do something like that."

"Well, I believe you can if you put your mind to it," Naruto told her in an encouraging tone.

_No, not in this village. You don't know what I have in me and for them to let me become Raikage, I just don't think it's possible no matter how strong I get, _Yugito thought.

"Really I do," Naruto insisted.

Yugito just smiled weakly.

They finished their meals and got up to go. As they left Naruto could feel all the stares at them as they walked out the restaurant. They made a right and continued their journey. It took about 5 minutes before she stopped, "This is the training area where we practice taijutsu." She pointed out to the big field empty field. There was only one thing, a big fighting stage that was made out of stone.

This place reminded Naruto of something and he decided to ask Yugito, "How come the entire village is made out of rubber?" Naruto asked her. "And why are there small rods everywhere?"

"Well as you can see, there is a constant thunderstorm here so everything is made out of rubber so it wouldn't conduct any electricity. The rods, or what we call lightning rods, are another defense against the lightning storms, it attracts electrical currents to it and dissipates it into the ground," Yugito answered.

"So, why aren't there any rubber or rods here?" Naruto asked.

Yugito just stared at the field, so Naruto decided to also stare at the field. It was no less than 20 seconds when a huge lightning bolt struck the arena. _I see, _Naruto thought, _you not only have to worry about your opponent, but the environment also. You don't even necessarily have to have a training partner if you just come out here. You can just come here to practice and make your reactions faster. And oxygen is also really thin here so when I go back down to normal sea level, it'll take me longer to get tired. _With this thought, Naruto couldn't wait until he started training.

It was getting a little late so Yugito decided to take Naruto back home.

As they reached Kato's house they went in and saw Kato on the couch. Kato asked, "So, you show Naruto around?"

"Yes, I did," Yugito replied.

Kato nodded and said, "Let's talk about your training Naruto. First off, I don't really know how good your taijutsu is. Jiraiya-sama told me that it's above average and I do believe him, but let's I want to how good you really are. Let's go upstairs."

When they reached the third floor Naruto asked, "So, you're going to fight me?"

"No, I can't really assess you if I'm fighting you. I want you to fight Yugito," Kato said.

_He couldn't be serious could he? _Naruto thought. _I mean she's a girl. I don't really want to hurt her or damage her. Besides she treated him earlier today in the restaurant when she paid for his ramen. _The last thought made Naruto really not want to fight her.

With this news though Yugito looked more cheerful. _Finally, I guess I do see how strong you are Naruto, _she thought to herself.

Kato assessed Naruto's features and could tell what he was thinking, "Don't worry Naruto, you can go hard on Yugito. She can take it."

Naruto still wasn't sure what to think.

"Okay," Naruto said.

"Okay, since I just want to assess your taijutsu I want you to use only strictly taijutsu okay. Jiraiya-sama said that you like to use Kage Bunshins in your fighting skill so I guess you can use kage bunshin's also, since you'll be using taijutsu when using your bunshins. Okay start," Kato said.

Naruto got into his defensive stance. _I still don't really feel like attacking her, _Naruto thought.

Sensing something was wrong with Naruto, Yugito said, "Naruto, don't worry about me, seriously. I want to fight you at your best." This however seemed to have no effect on Naruto. She could still sense that he didn't want to attack her. _Well then, he'll change his mind after I hit him a few times, _she thought.

Naruto was still in his defensive stance. _Okay, here we go, what the…_ _where is she?_ As he thought that, there was a deep pain on the right of his stomach. Yugito had went right behind him without him noticing and gave him a good right hook to his right side just below his ribs. Naruto bent over to his right to hold his ribs when suddenly he felt another punch, this time on the right side of his head. This sent him up to the air about two feet. Yugito has just given Naruto a hard right uppercut to the face. She then did a right roundhouse kick while Naruto was still in the air which connected to his back-side. This sent Naruto flying 5 feet ahead of her where he landed on the ground chest first.

"I told you Naruto," said Kato while having a small grin, "if you worry to much about hurting her, you're going to get hurt."

Naruto spat out some blood to the floor. _Goddamn, what the hell is going on? I couldn't even see her. She was probably as fast as Lee with his gates. Okay, calm down Naruto,_ _you can keep up with the speed. It was just that you were worried about hitting a girl and that's why you were caught off guard, _Naruto thought.Naruto stood back up.

Naruto gave his fox-like grin to Yugito, "Okay, I'm sorry for taking you lightly because you were a girl Yugito, I won't hold back now."

"Okay," Yugito said with a smile. To Naruto's surprise, it wasn't a cocky smile like that time Neji had him almost beat or the type of smile that says I'm better than you like every time Sasuke smiled. It was a warm smile that said, that's all that I asked for in the first place. _Girls are really weird _Naruto thought.

Yugito ran straight at Naruto with her full speed. Being ready this time, Naruto saw her coming. She threw a left hand at Naruto's face which he blocked with his right hand. Naruto saw her other hand coming and grabbed her wrist with his left hand and proceed to pull her towards him. Using her momentum against her, Naruto also elbowed her right in the stomach. While still holding onto her right wrist he kneeled down put the back of his neck right under the side of her stomach. He proceed to lift her over his shoulders and dropped her hard on the floor. Naruto still had a firm grip of her hand and still hasn't finished his assault on her. He was proceeding to punch her in the face, but instead was kicked on the side of his head with her left foot before he connected. This made him lose hold of her wrist. Naruto dropped to his knees and she proceed to rolled away a few feet away from him and jumping back to add another few feet between them.

"I see you're going to take me serious now," Yugito said while smiling that same smile.

"Well, I did say I was and I don't go back on my words so yeah, I'm taking you serious," Naruto replied with a smile.

_It's my turn to attack _Naruto thought. He ran straight at Yugito. She started to think _He can't be serious running at me straight on, can he? _As Naruto closed the gap to a couple of feet he put his two index fingers and two middle fingers in a cross. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu," said Naruto. Just then two clones appear by Naruto, one on the left and one on the right. The clone on the right immediately did a right roundhouse sweep kick when it popped into existence. Yugito barely had time to react to the clone, she managed to jump up to avoid the hit, but as she did this she noticed the other clone starting to wind up his right hand ready to punch her lights out. As the punch came she grabbed the clone's forearms and used it like a high bar. With the skill of a gymnast she swung herself forward and with both of her legs kicked the real Naruto right in the face which sent him flying back a few feet.

_Nice try Naruto, _Kato thought smiling, _trying to send her airborne so she would have less defenseless mobility, but I don't think that'll work against her._

As he fell to the ground he thought to himself _Damn this girl hits hard. _He didn't have much time to worry about that though because he could feel that her chakra was getting closer to him. She almost stomped on his face with her left leg, but Naruto managed to roll just behind her before she could stomp him. As he was getting up from his roll he gave a hard right hook to the back of her right hamstrings, right under her buttocks. _Well… that wasn't a good spot to hit, but oh well, she was already recovering and if I went for the side of stomach or face, I'm certain she would have blocked it, _Naruto thought. He tried a left roundhouse kick to her face, but she was already recovering from the blow to her leg and saw his kick coming. Yugito grabbed Naruto's leg and threw him across the room to the wall. Immediately after she threw him she ran after him ready for another assault on him. As Naruto was about 4 foot to the wall, he crossed his fingers in a cross again and said, "Kage Bunshin." The clone appeared with his back against the wall, his two arms stretched out ready to catch Naruto's feet. As Naruto pressed his foot against the clone's hand, he jumped forward. The clone also pushed Naruto forward to propel his speed faster. Not thinking Naruto would use his clone that way Yugito was surprised at his speed and Naruto was already too close for her to block, dodge, or counter-attack. She received a welcoming surprise. Naruto pulled back his left hand and with all his strength swung it hard right to her face. His fist connected with her face cleanly. She couldn't even attempt to soften the impact by adjusting her body position. This sent Yugito back a few feet. _How's that? _Naruto thought, _You got me in the face twice and I finally got you back._ He didn't want to admit it, but that felt good.

Blood was running down Yugito's nose and her lips. She was dazed by the hit and was slow to get to her knees. As she was trying to get up, Naruto had already made a bunshin behind her and it grabbed her into a full nelson. _Without her arms,_ Naruto thought, _she wouldn't be that harmful. _He walked up to her ready to punch her again. As he got close, she swung her legs upward. _Not this time girl, I knew you were going to do something like that, _Naruto thought and proceed to grab her ankles between his armpits. She was now in mid-air with Naruto holding her ankles and the clone holding her upwards in a full nelson. Because he got her ankles under his armpits, he could still perform seals. He created another clone and the clone elbowed her hard in the stomach. She tensed up in pain when the blow came. As the clone came down for another strike, she used all her strength in her abs, chest, arms and legs to left up the clone that was holding her in a full nelson. This made the two clones hit each other and they both puffed. The real Naruto was still holding her ankles. Yugito swung herself upright while Naruto was still holding her ankles and forced most of her weight forward so that she could make Naruto fall down. It succeeded. Naruto was falling to the ground with Yugito on top of him. When Naruto hit the ground he also felt a large impact that also landed on his shoulders. It was Yugito's knees, Naruto's holding attack has cost him dearly. His shoulders were now under her full weight and she had the advantage of being on top of him. Naruto struggle, but couldn't manage to get her off. Yugito continued to pound Naruto's face, each blow feeling like he was being struck by a metal pole. _I can't even defend myself or move so that I could soften the impact,_ Naruto thought. Each punch that she threw connected cleanly.

"That's enough," said Kato seeing as how Naruto couldn't do anything. And at that Yugito stopped and got off of Naruto.

When she got up she put out her hand to help Naruto up. Naruto was in a daze and accepted her hand. To his surprise she didn't have a face like she was superior to Naruto in any way, unlike so many people had when Naruto was down. She still had her genuine smile.

"That's good," Kato commented to them both, "Yugito, could you clean up the blood that you guys made?"

"Yes, sensei," Yugito replied.

"Come Naruto, I want to talk with you," Kato said.

Naruto followed Kato downstairs and into one of the bedrooms. He wasn't dazed anymore, but now his brain was thumping like it wanted to jump out of his head.

"You did very good with your first taijutsu match with Yugito," Kato told him.

"Yeah, do you mean how I got my faced punched in?" Naruto was not in a good mood, considering he just got beat up by a girl in taijutsu.

"No, that's not what I meant. I really mean it, most people that goes up against her in strictly taijutsu don't even land a punch on her," Kato responded hoping to uplift his mood.

"Well, I had kage bunshin's helping me," Naruto said pointing out that he had to use bunshins in his tactics. Yes, he did hit her without his kage bunshins, but when she was still testing to see if Naruto was serious or not yet. _Oh yea and that one time where I almost punched her butt, _Naruto thought, a slight blush coming to his face which quickly went away, _got to apologize to her for that. _Most of the time that he managed to hit her were due to his kage bunshin strategy. This did not help his mood.

"Well, they were still using taijutsu," Kato said, "I was going to start you with the a more basic level of taijutsu, but I can see that we can skip that and start on the more advance form. Jiraiya-same also told me that he wanted you working on some missions while you are here. I'll talk with the Raikage about that, I'm pretty certain that he wouldn't mind. You'll be going on missions with me and Yugito."

_Great, going on missions with someone that bested you, _was all that Naruto was thinking. He put that out of his mind though, "That's good to hear," he said.

Back in the dojo, Yugito was cleaning the blood while thinking of her match with Naruto. He certainly was strong no doubt about that. _I wonder if I can take him if it wasn't just strictly a taijutsu match, _she wondered to herself. _Even though I can also use ninjutsu and genjutsu, I'm pretty certain he has an advantage over me in ninjutsu. From what I've been reading Jiraiya-same is a great ninjutsu user and a very good taijutsu user. If he learned a lot of ninjutsu from Jiraiya-sama then I'm pretty certain that he has me beat in that category. Where did he learn his taijutsu from though, was it Jiraiya-sama or did he pick it up himself? It seems to not have any form, like he's just going on instinct. If he learned this mostly by himself then he'll be a very good ninja after the training. _She made a small smile, this was the few times she ever made a genuine smile.

Naruto was getting ready for bed when he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in," Naruto said.

He saw Yugito come in and said, "Oh, hi."

"Hello, Naruto," Yugito said, "I just wanted to say that it was fun sparring with you."

_Fun, rrrright, it was fun pounding my face in, _Naruto thought. But, he could also see that she didn't fare so well herself. Thanks to Kyuubi's healing power he did not look as damage as her. Unlike him her face had a deep blue color to it. The pretty face had a big blue mark right in the center thanks to Naruto. It was a large blue bruise the size of Naruto's fist. He truly did feel sorry for what he did, "I'm sorry for punching you in the face, oh and on your…" He was going to say butt, but couldn't find himself to say it.

She smiled and said, "No, it's ok, that was fun. It's get boring after fighting sensei for a long time. Our moves are too similar, but the only other people that would fight me is way below my level so it's not much fun either. You, on the other hand are pretty skilled in taijutsu already. I hope we become good friends." With that she put out her hand for Naruto to shake. Naruto took her hand and shook it. "Well, you're pretty interesting. K, see you I gotta go to bed." She walked out of Naruto's room.

_She thought he was pretty skilled and fun. Getting her face pounded was fun or was it when she was pounding him? Hope to become good friends? He's interesting? Damn, girls are so hard to figure out, _Naruto thought. With this thought he went to open his door, just as he opened his door he saw Yugito open the door that also led to Kato's room. She turned back and said, "Anything wrong Naruto?" Naruto seeing this just said, "Oh nothing, I was just going to say that it was fun." With that he smiled and she smiled back.

Naruto closed his doors and went back on his bed to think. _What am I thinking? Of course she's Kato's girlfriend. He said that they had two bedrooms open and there were only three bedrooms. Where else was she going to sleep? Nice to show your appreciation Naruto, a guy's willing to teach you taijutsu and here you are thinking about how you're feeling about his girlfriend, _Naruto thought. _K, from now on I won't have any of these feelings anymore. I gotta focus on what's at hand._

As Yugito entered her bedroom which she shared with her brother, she was interrupted by her brother who was already lying on his bed that on the other side of the room.

"What do you think of him?" Kato asked her.

"Well, he pretty good in taijutsu, I'm sure he'll become a very good ninja after training a while with us," Yugito responded.

"That's not what I meant, you know what I mean. Yugito, I can see it in your eyes when you look at him. You're always smiling when you're with him also which you rarely do. I mean it's pretty easy to see," Kato commented with a small grin.

Yugito tensed up at this, "I don't know what you mean, Kato-sensei." She tried to hide her emotions. _Ninjas don't have emotions, how can my brother know? Am I that obvious? _The truth was she didn't know what to think of him. The way that he carried himself was unlike any shinobi that she knew. Not only in the way that he dressed. He never tried to hide his emotions and judging by the little talk she had with him in the restaurant, she figured that he really valued friendship. Shinobis weren't suppose to have friends. It's a reliability on the field if the enemy knew who your friends were. They can use your friends as bait. What's even worse, both of you could die because of that. Also, he made her think of stuff she never thought about before like friendship and goals. She did not like this.

"When are you going to stop calling me sensei and start calling me brother?" Kato said interrupted her thinking. "We've already went through this, even though I'm technically your sensei, it'll be better if you called me brother. I mean, we're pretty much at the same strength except that you're still rank lower than me." _Yes, she would also be a jounin with her current strength, but since she's a Jinchuruki the village wanted to protect her more and therefore lower her rank so that she can't accept the harder missions. Also if she release some of her bijuu powers then he was certain that she was above him. _He knew that keeping her rank lower wasn't for her protection though, it was for the protection of the village. If the vessel was killed then the village's defense would be down.

_But, why am I even bothering if she calls me brother or not? _Kato thought to himself. _She's never going to call me brother, she was taught that shinobis don't have bonds and if she admitted that I'm her brother than it'll be admitting to having a bond. I know she would do anything to protect me, but her calling me brother would probably never happen._

"Well, I'm not going to push it out of you to call me brother, but anyways good night Yugito," Kato said to her.

"Good night, sensei," Yugito replied.

As he lay on his bed he thought, s_hould I tell her that Naruto is also a Jinchuruki so that she wouldn't feel so alone? No, it's not my right to do that, it's their right._ With that thought he fell asleep also.

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_**No jutsus this chapter except for Kage Bunshins.**_


	4. Ch 4:Home at Last

**Chapter 4: Home at Last**

During his 1 year stay at the Hidden Village of Cloud, Naruto has been doing some missions with Kato and Yugito for the village so that he'll have some money to spend. Naruto didn't chase after his feelings that he had. He had only one goal in mind during the time in the Hidden Village of Cloud, to get stronger. Whenever he had free time, he did non-stop training in taijutsu. He felt that he was probably one of the best taijutsu users now. He was almost equal with Yugito and Kato. But, time flies by and it was finally time to leave. He said his goodbyes and went down the mountain to meet his former sensei.

When he reached the bottom on the mountain he saw that Jiraiya was already there waiting for him. "Hey, ero-sennin, glad I didn't have to wait for you," Naruto said in a happy voice.

"Ready to go home, brat?" Jiraiya asked him.

Naruto couldn't wait to go home and see his old friends. With that thought he made a huge smile.

"If we hurry we can get back to the Hidden Village of Leaf in two week," Jiraiya said to him. With that, they started their journey home.

Two weeks had passed and they were at the front of the gate. "What is your purpose for coming to the Hidden Village of Leaf?" the guard asked.

"Well, I live here and I've come back to be Hokage, so let me through," Naruto responded in a loud and obnoxious voice.

The guard just looked at him. _Well, he did have a leaf forehead protector_. He proceed to look at the other man. To his surprise he realized that it was Jiraiya. When he noticed this he said, "Oh, sorry Jiraiya-sama I didn't know it was you. You may pass."

The door opened and Jiraiya and Naruto went through. "Oh, sorry Jiraiya-sama I didn't know it was you," Naruto said in a low mocking voice copying the guard. _Stupid guard,_ Naruto thought.

_Boy, does it feel good to be home_. _Man, am I hungry. I'm going to go eat some ramen first, then I'll probably go say hi to all my friends._ _So many things to do_, Naruto thought. To Jiraiya's surprise Naruto wasn't even loud in his return or Naruto didn't even try to pull a prank. _Was it the missions that he did in the Hidden Village of Cloud that matured him?_ Jiraiya thought. He sure has grown up. He could see that Naruto was happy to return though.

"Hey Naruto, I'm going to give a report to Tsunade. You probably won't see me after this until I have some new information on Akatsuki and the likes. I'll probably come back a few times to visit you, but I guess this is good-bye. I've taught you everything I know so I'm of no further use. I know that you're strong and I can't protect you anymore so take care, okay. Maybe when this whole mess with Akatsuki is through we'll be able to relax more, but until then I'll have to keep updating my information network," Jiraiya said in a sad serious voice, but having a smile.

He knew that leaving Naruto was the best choice for Naruto and him. Jiraiya could update his information network easier because he didn't have to watch the kid anymore, but it still hurt him that he wouldn't have Naruto around anymore. Another thing was that if Jiraiya was always there to protect him then Naruto would never be strong enough to protect himself even if he learned all the jutsu's in the world. Some things can only be taught in a life or death situation. Jiraiya didn't expect to have these kinds of feelings when he first started to train Naruto.

"Thank you so much, Jiraiya-sensei," Naruto mentioned in a low sad voice, knowing that he won't be seeing the hermit that much anymore. Naruto calling Jiraiya sensei almost made him cry.

"Okay, stop the mushy stuff I got to go," Jiraiya said. With that he hopped on the rooftops and started jumping towards the Hokage tower.

Naruto haven't even passed the second block when he noticed one of his friends. It was Lee. Lee recognized Naruto at once and said in his loud and youthful voice, "Naruto, you've come back my youthful friend. Everyone was waiting for your return. I must go tell everyone." Before Naruto could get a word in Lee was already running to spread the news that Naruto has come back. Naruto just scratched the back of his head.

As he continued to walk down the lane Naruto saw his old friends coming towards him. There was Hinata, Shino, Lee, Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba, and Neji. Naruto was sort of disappointed that Sakura wasn't there.

Naruto waved at them. When they came he greeted them all, "Hey Hinata, Shino, Lee, Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba, Neji." They all greeted him also. Hinata just blushed and pointed her two forefingers together and managed to mutter a "Hello, Naruto-kun." Naruto noticed she changed her jacket into a purple and white jacket. It was purple in the middle and white on the sleeves. The main difference was her hair which she grew out longer. She also managed to grow in places that Naruto liked.

Shino didn't say anything to Naruto. He just nodded his head at Naruto. Shino hasn't changed much also. He grew a little taller and had a jacket with a hood that he kept over his head.

Lee still wore the same green spandex. The only difference was that he was wearing a vest with it now.

Shikamaru said in his lazy tone, "Hey Naruto, how's it been?" Shikamaru also had a chuunin vest now. He grew his hair a little bit longer, but overall he still looked the same.

Ino smiled and said, "Hey, Naruto." Naruto noticed that Ino regrew her hair to reach her back again. She also let her bangs cover one of her eyes. She was still sporting the purple shorts and shirt.

Kiba said in a loud voice, "Since you're back now, I can hae my rematch right?" With that Naruto responded, "Haha, sure Kiba. It doesn't matter though because it'll be the same result." Kiba just replied, "Dream on Naruto." Naruto looked at Kiba and he ditched his jacket and wore a lighter jacket this time around. It was dark blue in color. It didn't have a hood like his old one. Right by his side was his dog, Akamaru, was very big now. He reached Kiba's waist.

Neji said in his monotone voice with a small smile, "Glad to see you Naruto, I would like a rematch as well." Neji was the one that changed his clothing the most. He wore a long white robe. Also he didn't keep his hair in a beanie anymore.

Ino looked at Naruto and thought, _Wow he sure has changed. _Naruto wasn't only taller now, but had a more concentrated look on his face now. He ditched his orange jacket and wore a black and white short sleeve shirt. Above his upper chest the shirt was all black while the lower half was white. He also ditched his orange pants and had on a black shorts that reached his shins. His arms and legs were wrapped with tape. Ino noticed that he was a bit taller now and loss some fat replacing it with some muscle.

Shikamaru was the first to talk after the introductions, "Long time no see Naruto. The others are still on their missions so you'll probably meet up with them later and Sakura's coming down right now. She was at the Hokage's tower so it'll take her a while to get her. Lee already told her to meet us at Ichiraku Bar. Let's go then."

When they reached the Ramen Bar it was a tight fit, but everybody got in. Of course Naruto ordered the most ramen out of everyone there.

"So, what has everyone been doing?" Naruto asked the group.

Neji was the one that answered, "Well Me, Shino, Sakura, and Shikamaru are jounins now. Lee, Ino, Chouji, Hinata, Kiba are chuunins and Tenten became an ANBU. We've been doing nothing much, just some missions here and there. What about you Naruto, what have you been doing? And why would you receive personal training from a sennin?" Everyone in the group wanted to know this.

Only a few people in the group knew about the secret about the Kyuubi. Shikamaru figured it out after Naruto left, but didn't tell anyone because he thought that it was Naruto's right to tell everyone. Sakura found out after digging through some of the Hokage's documents. Other than that, no one else knew. Naruto knew one day that he would have to tell them, but decided that this wasn't the day.

"Well, Neji, I guess that Jiraiya just saw something in me and wanted to train me," Naruto said. This wasn't the best lie, but it was the only thing that Naruto could come up with. The whole group knew he was lying, but since this was his first day back they let it slide. "As for you other questions, I've been training mostly with Jiraiya," Naruto said.

"For three years straight?" Kiba asked. "Yea, just about," Naruto lied. He didn't want to say that he was training with shinobis from another village because if word got out then he knew that there could be a possible chance of him getting kicked out of the village. Especially since the Hidden Village of Cloud and the Hidden Village of Leaf had no alliance. He knew Tsunade wouldn't mind, but it was the council that he worried about. If they got word of it, then they could cause a problem for him. He decided he would tell his friends later in a more private place.

As they were talking, Naruto saw a girl in pink approach them. There was only one girl in pink that he knew.

Sakura appeared and gave Naruto a real happy smile, "Naruto, I'm so glad you're back."

Naruto answered back, "It's nice to see you too, Sakura." Naruto noticed that Sakura also grew her hair out again, but not as long this time, only to her mid back. She also wore a shorter short and a smaller shirt. She was shorter than Naruto now. _This was weird,_ _I thought I would be much more happy seeing her. It's not that I'm not happy to see her, it's just that I thought I would be getting butterflies or something. Sakura was the only girl that I've fallen in love with right? Then how come my feelings for her is the same as when I met my other friends?_ Naruto thought. Just then a shinobi with sunglasses appeared behind them. "Tsunade-sama request an immediate meeting with you, Naruto."

"Alright, guess I'll see you guys later," Naruto said to his friends with a huge smile. As he was walking out of the ramen stand, he noticed that Shikamaru also came out.

"Mind if I talk with you Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

"Go ahead," Naruto said.

"Why did you lie to us about the Kyuubi?" Shikamaru asked.

"So you know," Naruto said.

"Yes, so far only me and Sakura knows about the Kyuubi. I figured it out while Sakura figured it out by reading some documents that she shouldn't have," Shikamaru told him.

"How did you figure it out?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Well, right after you left I started to do some thinking. I always wondered why every adult in the village hated you so much. Also, another thing is, was that most parents told their kids not to associate with you. I remembered mine did. I also remembered that your birthday was on the 10th of October since Iruka-sensei would always take you out that day. Also the Kyuubi attack was on the same day as your birthday. We all knew that the fourth defeated the Kyuubi, but it always left out how he defeated the Kyuubi. So, because I was a chuunin already by then I could check out some more detailed information. I looked up how he defeated the Kyuubi and it said he used the Shikifuujin (Death God). Normally this would kill the user and the target, but when done to a demon it just seals it. Since a demon can't die it has to have a vessel, in this case I figured it was you because of the way the villagers treated you," Shikamaru said.

"You're just to smart for yourself, you know that? Well, what do you think of me now?" Naruto asked.

"What do you mean what do I think of you, you're still the same person I know. Nothing has changed. That's why I was wondering why didn't you tell them yet?" Shikamaru asked.

"Thanks for not telling everyone yet. Right now is not the time yet, but one day I will tell them," Naruto told Shikamaru.

"Alright, but they're your friends and I'm sure they won't change their opinion of you," Shikamaru said. With that he left Naruto and returned back to the Ramen Stand to pay for his food. As Shikamaru reached the Ramen shop his friends were discussing Naruto.

"So, what do you think of Naruto?" Ino said to Sakura.

"Well, he has matured that's for sure. He doesn't seem that loud anymore and hasn't pulled any pranks yet. I thought when he returned there would have been some fireworks or something, but he just returned in a normal fashion. It looks like he has a lot on his mind right now," Sakura answered her friend Ino.

"Yes, I can see that he's hiding something from us. It's not a small problem either," Neji commented.

"What why would he do that? Why would he want to keep a secret from us? He knows he can trust us and that we'll be there for him," Kiba questioned Neji.

"Exactly," Neji said.

"Explain?" said Kiba in a confused voice.

"Well, the way I see it is that Naruto is try to solve his problems by himself. He knows that if he tells us his problems, we're going to try and help him. It must be something huge for him not to tell us. In his view he's trying to keep us safe by not telling us," Neji answered Kiba.

"That a REAL stupid way of looking at things," Ino said loudly.

"Yes, I would agree with you, but this is probably how he sees it," Neji said. "Something big is coming up. I'm guessing that someone or something very dangerous is after Naruto's life."

"So you know what's happening then?" Lee asked Neji.

"Well, I don't the full story, but it's just pure guess work right now. Remember these aren't facts, just analyzation right now," Neji said.

"Well, explain it to us then," Kiba snorted. He hated when Neji acted all hi and mighty because he could analyze stuff easier than him.

The whole group was giving their full attention to Neji.

"I don't know why, who, or what is after Naruto, but I'm certain of this. They must be very strong. Naruto's been training with Jiraiya for 3 years right. Knowing him, he probably trained all day and night each day without rest. He's probably the strongest one out of us right now," Neji said. With that Kiba gave a fake yawn.

"No, I'm serious Kiba, he's probably stronger than even me or Shino here." Shino nodded in agreement. Even though Shino knew that he has improved tremendously, he knew that Naruto was stronger. He had been training under a sennin for 3 years. He also knew that Naruto would not slack off. Not that Shino did, but it just seemed like Naruto could go train for days without rest.

"I'm saying he's at least at Kakashi-sensei or Gai-sensei's level at least," Neji continued. "No way, an elite jounin," Kiba replied. "I know he's stronger, but around Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei?"

"You might think he's a drop-out and wouldn't improve that much Kiba, but remember what he did to you? Remember what he did to me?" Neji continued. Kiba remembered alright, that's why he wanted to fight him again. Naruto beat him, but only by laying a stink bomb right in his face. _He was lucky in his match against me,_ Kiba thought. _But, his match against Neji luck did not contribute to the fight. He beat Neji without any luck at all. _And as much as Kiba hate to admit it, Neji was stronger than him.

"Are you talking about snake-man? Is that that person who's after him, snake-man?" Ino asked Neji.

"At first yeah, but then I started to wonder. We already knows that he'll be rescuing Sasuke sooner or later. And besides, Orochimaru is just one person. Even though he is a sennin he won't be able to take on that much people at the same time if he decides to attack Naruto. He would eventually run out of chakra," Neji said. "No, I believe he's hiding something else. That's why I also mentioned 'they' instead of just a person. I do not believe that Naruto wouldn't hide this if it was just one person. It must be a group of highly trained shinobis that's after Naruto for him not to tell us what's happening."

"So then, why is he so special that these 'highly skilled ninjas' want him so bad? Does he lay a magical egg that gives you a wish or something?" Kiba asked, putting emphasize on highly skilled ninjas.

"That's something I don't know," Neji said.

Both Sakura and Shikamaru tensed at this. They knew why. The group wasn't after Naruto, they were after what was in Naruto.

"Do you have something to say Sakura," Shino said, more of a comment than a question.

"No, I don't. Sorry, I got to back Tsunade-sama's office and file her papers," Sakura commented and took off.

"What, Sakura wait, come back here fore-head girl," Ino screamed. But, Sakura just ignored her and went started to run to the Hokage tower.

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After Shikamaru left Naruto hurried to the Hokage's office. As he was hopping on the rooftops of the buildings, he was thinking to himself. Naruto felt bad for not telling his friends about what was happening, but he was right. If he told them who was after him, they would be in big trouble also. He didn't want them to lose their life because of trying to protect him. He just wanted everything to be frozen in time, but he knew that this couldn't happen.

He didn't mind them knowing that he was going to retrieve Sasuke from snake-man. But, he didn't want them to know about Akatsuki. Sooner or later Akatsuki would be coming for him. He had two choices, either wait for them to attack in a group or attack them one by one. He liked his chances with the latter. He knew Akatsuki were probably going to strike soon. Last time Jiraiya heard, Akatsuki only needed three Bijuus. He knew Gaara was still alive, but didn't know where the other Bijuu was located. Naruto did not want his friends to worry about his problem.

When he got closer to Hokage Tower, he couldn't wait to see Tsunade. To him, Tsunade was like a mother that Naruto never had. Unlike Jiraiya, she tried to discipline him and watch over him. Though sometimes, she tries to protect him too much, Naruto thought. He knew that she was just worried for him though and that she was just using her best judgments. He remembered the time when Jiraiya told him about her taking a sword right to her chest just to save him from snake-man. There were a few people who would do something like that for Naruto. And for this he would gladly put his life on the line for her no matter what.

As Naruto entered opened Tsunade's door he saw her quickly tuck away a shot of sake. "eh hmmhmm, knock before you come in Naruto," she said to Naruto. She was really glad to see him. She assess him a little, _well, he's not the loudmouth that he used to be or the prankster. He really has grown up. He looks so serious right now._

"Hey, ba-chan," Naruto said in a loud voice. _I guess I was wrong about the loudmouth part, _Tsunade thought.

He looked to Tsunade's right where Shizune was standing, "Hi, Shizune-chan."

"Hello, Naruto," she responded with a smile.

"So was there anything particular that you wanted?" Naruto asked Tsunade.

"No, is there something wrong with just wanting to see the brat that I miss?" Tsunade said to Naruto.

"Well, of course not. I just thought that it was something more important, cause you know, you did make it kind of formal. I was going to come up her anyways right after lunch," Naruto said with a grin to Tsunade.

"Jiraiya already told me mainly everything so all I wanted to say was welcome home," Tsunade said to Naruto.

He smiled and said, "Well, it's good to be home."

"So, did you meet anyone interesting?" Tsunade said with an evil grin.

_Stupid Jiraiya, did he make up some story about me and Yugito? I didn't even do anything anyways so why does she have an evil grin like that, _Naruto thought.

"Don't know what you're talking about ba-chan," Naruto said in an emotionless tone.

"K, I believe you Naruto," Tsunade replied in a sarcastic voice still holding her grin.

This made Naruto fume. "I said I don't know what you're talking about," Naruto said louder with anger in his voice.

It was fun for Tsunade to tease Naruto, but she could see that this wasn't a subject to tease Naruto on so she decided to let him go. "Ok, all I wanted to do was see you, you're free to go now since I still don't know where to put you yet," she said to Naruto.

Naruto walked to the door mumbling, "Stupid ero-sennin." As he reached the door he remembered something that he was going to ask Tsunade. He stopped and turned around, "Ba-chan, when am I going to go and rescue Sasuke? It's already been three years already and he doesn't have much time left. Snake-man's going to take over his body soon so I want to try and rescue him as fast as possible."

"Probably in two months or so. We haven't found the base of the Hidden Village of Sound yet, but we're really close. By two months we should find it," Tsunade responded. With that Naruto left and closed the door.

"Why did you lie to him, Tsunade-sama? We've already found the Hidden Village of Sound," Shizune said to her sensei.

"Yes, that's the truth, but I can' tell him that. It's for his own safety. If I told him that we've already found the Hidden Village of Sound, he would bug me to no end until he got an answer out of me. I also don't want him going out right now with Akatsuki on the loose. Jiraiya said that the last time he updated his connections was a month ago so we don't really know their location right now. I don't want him going out without knowing where the members of Akatsuki are located. If they're some distance away then I'll let him go," she responded to her student.

"But, what if Orochimaru already switched to Sasuke's body by then?" Shizune asked.

"Well, according to Jiraiya he probably won't switch for another 6 months. He could switch right now, but he wants Sasuke to be a more permanent vessel. For that to happen Sasuke has to fall under the complete control of the Curse Seal. If no one seals it, it nearly takes 4 years or so to completely control someone when the Curse Seal is to given to them. Orochimaru probably instantly took off Kakashi's seal when Sasuke got there. Another thing is that if the person keeps using it repeatedly then the time that it takes to control someone will shorten, but according to Jiraiya's information Sasuke hasn't been using the Curse Seal much during his training with Orochimaru," Tsunade responded.

Not knowing Sasuke much, Tsunade didn't know why Naruto even wanted to bring him back. To her, all she saw was a person who betrayed the village and their friend in order to gain more power. She remembered how Naruto had almost died to bring her back just so she could heal him and what did he do to repay him. Sasuke gave a Chidori to Naruto straight to the chest. This thought made Tsunade angry. She knew that the Sharingan would be deadly under Orochimaru, but that still didn't it easier to control her anger. The leaf ninjas were supposed to support each other not try and kill each other. The council wanted him back at all cost, of course. It wasn't that they cared for Sasuke, they just wanted the Sharingan back in Konoha.


	5. Ch 5:A Serious Fight with my Sensei?

Chapter 5: A Serious Fight with my Sensei?

After about 5 minutes Tsunade heard a knocked on her door, "Come in," Tsunade said in a slightly louder than she would. It was her student Sakura. "So, what's on your mind Sakura?"

Not knowing how to ask without giving away that she secretly looked at Naruto profile she said, "Ummm, I was just wondering, who's after Naruto?"

Tsunade raised her eyebrows and said in her usual voice, "What do you mean Sakura?"

"Please don't lie Tsunade-sensei, I know something is up, please just tell me. We were all talking about Naruto and Neji mentioned something that I couldn't stop thinking about. As I thought about it more I could see that Neji was right," Sakura pleaded.

"I see someone has been snooping around the records without my permission," Tsunade said in a slightly angry voice, laying a big pile of paper to the right of her harder than usual.

"I'm sorry, I was just worried about my teammate," Sakura said apologetically.

"You will be punished for looking through the files without my permission," she said in a commanding tone. "But, I will tell you since you're his teammate and will probably try to look through all the records anyways if I don't."

"Okay, you already know what these people are after right?" Tsunade asked. Sakura nodded. "Well, there are 9 Class-S missing nins that call themselves Akatsuki. Basically, they are after Naruto for the Kyuubi inside of him." When she heard that, Sakura almost fainted. She lost all the feelings in her legs, _9 Class-S missing nins after Naruto, _she thought.

"We don't really know what they will do if they managed to get the Kyuubi. Also, they aren't just after the Kyuubi, they are also after the other Bijuus. So far they got 6 Bijuus already so it's only a matter of time before they come after Naruto," Tsunade said.

_Six Bijuus, that only leaves three more, _Sakura thought. "How would he defend himself, he's going to die," Sakura said in a very worried voice almost to the point of crying.

"Ahh, don't worry about him so much, he can take care of himself," Tsunade said trying to reassure her. "Besides we're here to protect him also."

"But, what if he does something stupid like go and try to attack them?" Sakura asked.

"Who'll be stupid enough to do that?" Tsunade said. As she said this she remembered who she was talking about. It was Naruto. She started to quickly think now. _K, put yourself in Naruto's position Tsunade and what would you be thinking. _Tsunade put herself in Naruto's position and tried to think like him. _K, first off I'll be scared that's for sure. Second, I wouldn't tell anyone and handle this myself because I wouldn't want my friends to get killed. Third, because I don't want to live in fear my whole life I either have two options wait for them to come and get me or… Goddamn, Sakura was right he was going to try and take them out._ This thought made Tsunade cringe. He was going to try and take out Akatsuki by himself.

"Don't worry Sakura I'll have ANBU teams watching his move so that he won't try to attack them," Tsunade quickly said.

"Beside I told you already, he's real strong," Tsunade said.

"How strong is he?" Sakura asked her sensei.

"Well, he's the strongest genin I know," Tsunade replied laughing hard at her own joke. Sakura wasn't in the joking mood and Tsunade saw that right away. "Gosh, can't you take a joke Sakura? Okay from what I've heard from Jiraiya, he said that Naruto was about Kakashi's level right now."

_So, Neji was right, he's about an elite jounin, _Sakura thought. "But, that's still not enough to beat 9 Class-S criminals. For all we know these Akatsuki members could be as strong and you, Jiraiya-sama, and snake-man."

"Actually we are pretty sure that most of them are," Tsunade responded.

When Tsunade said that Sakura gasped. "He's only as strong as Kakashi-sensei, he won't be able to take them."

"Well, you haven't been keeping up with your old sensei lately have you?" Tsunade asked.

"Not really, I talk with him all the time, but I really don't know what he's been doing lately," Sakura said.

"What I meant was that Naruto is probably on par with the current Kakashi and not the Kakashi that you knew," Tsunade said to Sakura.

"Is there that much of a difference between the current Kakashi-sensei and the Kakashi-sensei that I knew?" Sakura asked Tsunade.

"Well, the old Kakashi wouldn't even be able to do anything to me at all even if we fought a hundred times. If we fought seriously, the new Kakashi would probably get the best of me about one in every three or four tries depending on the circumstances," Tsunade said to her stundent.

_How can Kakashi improve that much? _Sakura thought. "I'm sorry Tsunade-sensei, but I don't see how Kakashi could improve that much in such a short time. I mean I could see Naruto improving a lot, but that's because he's still young. Kakashi, on the other hand is an adult. Wouldn't he be near his potential already a long time ago?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, that would be true of most people, but not in Kakashi's case. Let me ask you a question Sakura. Do you know your previous sensei's past?" Tsunade asked her student.

_Now that I think about it, I know nothing of Kakashi-sensei's past, _Sakura thought. "No, I don't," she replied.

"Well, I'll give you a little history lesson on your old sensei. To put it simply, Kakashi is a genius ninja. If you thought that Sasuke was a genius, which I agree he is, he's nothing compared to Kakashi. Kakashi became a chuunin at age 6 and a jounin at age 13," Tsunade told her student. At that Sakura's jaw dropped, _was Kakashi-sensei born with a kunai in his hand or something?_ Sakura thought. Tsunade continued with her explanation, "Even though it was during war-times being a chuunin at age 6 was still unheard of and incredible. For example, Gai didn't become a chuunin until age 11, while Asuma didn't become a chuunin until age 12."

"Do you his nickname in the ninja world?" Tsunade asked wondering if Sakura knew.

"I remember our first Class-C mission when we fought with one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist and he called Kakashi-sensei 'Copy Ninja.' He also stated how Kakashi had over 1000 techniques," Sakura answered her sensei.

"About how many techniques have you seen from him?" Tsunade asked her.

"Only a few, about four or five," Sakura answered.

"Since he has so many techniques, why do you think he has only shown about four or five?" Tsunade asked her student. She liked to make Sakura think, instead of just telling her how it was.

"Well, I figured that even though he copied over a thousand techniques that most of them were useless. I'm also guessing that he doesn't want to show off," Sakura answered Tsunade's question.

"Yes, you're right about copying useless jutsus, but there are some valuable ones that he has copied. He's done many S-ranked missions and I'm pretty sure that he has copied some of those jutsus. I'll tell you why he has only shown a few techniques to you so far. Even though he has copied many techniques, the reason why he can't use them in battle is because he has a very low chakra level. If he used one of his the A-rank or S-rank jutsus that he has copied, it would drain him too much and he would be defenseless if it didn't work. For him, using a big jutsu or a devastating jutsu is a double-edge sword. Even though he's an elite jounin, his chakra level is about a lower chuunin only. I understand that his Sharingan does take some chakra out of him, but it shouldn't take that much even if he isn't an Uchiha. Because Kakashi was such a genius, he would beat his enemies with brains and as few jutsus as possible. Even though that's good because he's improving his intelligence by putting himself in a disadvantage, it could cause a big problem when facing a powerful enemy. Basically, he was very lazy and never trained. He still had the same chakra capacity as he had when he was a 6 year old boy. Kakashi doesn't even need to learn any new jutsu, just by increasing his charka capacity he could use some of the A-rank and S-rank jutsus that he copied without worrying that much about going over his limit. Without anyone to tutor, he's been training hard non-stop for three years now," Tsunade explained to Sakura.

Sakura understood. Since Kakashi had some many jutsus up his sleeve, all he had to do was increase his chakra reserves and he could use them without worrying at all about depleting all of his reserves.

"So, why has he been training for three years?" Sakura asked.

"Well, there was this one time when he went up against one of the Akatsuki members and was beat pretty badly. I think that's what made him start training. He probably felt that he would have stood a better chance if he could have just used some of his jutsus that he copied without worrying about using all of his chakra. But, I think that mean reason is because he knew that Akatsuki were after Naruto. He wanted to do all that he could to protect him when that time came," Tsunade said to Sakura.

_Things were looking better, _Sakura thought, _but not by much._

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When Naruto left Tsunade's office, he decided that he would go pay Iruka a visit. As he reached the door he slowly opened it to see if there was any students around. Luckily there wasn't, it was just Iruka. Iruka was still looking down at his papers and said, "Come in," not knowing who was at the door.

"Is that what you say to you favorite student?" Naruto said in a loud happy voice.

Iruka tensed up at this and quickly got up to go hug Naruto, "Is that really you Naruto, I've missed you so much."

"Of course it's me, Iruka-sensei, who else can it be," Naruto replied while being hugged.

Iruka released Naruto and asked, "So, what have you been doing?"

"Just been training and stuff like that so that I'll be stronger," Naruto said.

"What are you plans today? If you're not doing anything we can go and catch something at Ichiraku," Iruka said to Naruto.

_I already ate, but I didn't get to finish my meal when I was eating with Ino and them, _Naruto thought. "Alright, let's go."

With that he and Iruka took off to Ichiraku. When they got there it was no surprise that Naruto ordered 7 bowls of ramen.

"Iruka-sensei what have you been up to?" Naruto asked Iruka.

"Well, I'm still doing the same thing, except now that I'm engage," he answered with a smile.

"To who?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Anko," Iruka replied.

Naruto made an unbelievable face when he heard this. _They're so different_, Naruto thought_, he's so nice and protect while that Chuunin examiner had a hot head_.

Iruka smiled and said, "Once you get to know her Naruto, I bet you'll like her."

Naruto didn't believe he could ever like that woman, but decided that if Iruka was happen then he'll be happy for him.

They continued their small talk avoiding the subject of Sasuke for the next hour.

"Okay Iruka-sensei, I got to go and visit Kakashi now, take care," Naruto told him.

"Anytime Naruto, don't be a stranger now," Iruka replied back.

When he was walking towards Kakashi's house he was thinking about the information he just received from Tsunade. It's could take two months, he didn't want to wait that long because snake-man could already have taken over Sasuke by then. _Can't do anything now without knowing where the village is, _he thought. He reached Kakashi's door and knocked on it.

Kakashi opened the door and said with his happy laid-back voice, "Hey, Naruto glad you're back. Come in."

"Thanks," he replied to his former sensei. His former sensei didn't change much. He still had on the same clothes as before and still had the same laid back face. Something was different though, but Naruto couldn't tell.

Naruto went into Kakashi's house. This was the first time in his former sensei's house and to his surprise it was actually pretty small. Right when you walk in there was a small living and a small kitchen to the left. Down the hallway were two doors. _Probably his bedroom and bathroom, _Naruto thought. There was hardly any furniture at all, only a single-person couch, a small television and a bookshelf with many books. _That's what he's been spending his money on, _Naruto thought as he looked at the bookshelf which was full with books. _Probably all the perverted stuff that Jiraiya writes, _Naruto thought.

"So, I guess you must be strong now huh," Kakash said to Naruto.

"Well, actually that's exactly what I'm here for Kakashi-sensei. The truth is I want to fight you," Naruto said scratching the back of his head and having a smile.

Kakashi knew why Naruto wanted to fight him. He was the only one with the Sharingan and Naruto would have to fight Sasuke pretty soon. He wanted to see how he does against a Sharigan user. Kakashi didn't mind because the truth was he wanted to see how much Naruto has improved also.

"Alright let's go to team 7's training ground," Kakashi said.

They reached the old training ground where team 7 took the bell test. The stood in the middle of the field surrounded by a huge river and some trees.

"Kakashi-sensei before we start I got something to say. I don't this to be just a regular spar or training session alright. I mean, I would like it if either one of us didn't die, but I don't want you to hold back until it's absolutely necessary. When I'm fighting Sasuke, he will come at me with everything he has so I want you to also come at me with everything you have," Naruto told his former sensei.

"I understand Naruto, same for you too," Kakashi said and with that he lifted his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan. "Okay, begin."

Naruto immediately threw a shuriken and did a few quick handseals and said, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken shadow clone)." The shuriken turned into about 30 shurikens that went straight for Kakashi. With a few handseals Kakashi said, "Doton Kabe no jutsu" (Earth Wall) and put his hands on the ground. A huge wall of ground came up just in front of Kakashi blocking the shurikens.

As the wall was going up Naruto made a clone and moved quickly to the nearby tree to hide. His clone was already rushing at Kakashi. It went around the huge wall of dirt and threw a right punch at Kakashi which was blocked with Kakashi's left hand. The clone started his assault on Kakashi. Kakashi continued to block and dodge the clone's attack. This went on for about a minute or so and Naruto's clone got impatient and stopped for a second and said, "Come on Kakashi-sensei, fight back." Little did he know that's what Kakashi wanted him to do.

Taking the moment of opportunity when the clone stopped attacking Kakashi did a few quick handseals and said, "Raikou Kara Zenki no jutsu (Lightning from above). As he did this the clouds changed from normal clouds to dark rain clouds. Rain started to pour down violently and then a lightning bolt came straight down for Naruto's clone. The clone looked up and saw that it was going to hit him, but luckily he had this kind of training in the Hidden Village of Cloud so he quickly dodged it by jumping back.

Kakashi started his attack now. He quickly raced up to the clone and threw a left straight punch which the clone dodged. Kakashi then threw a left kick at the clones side, which he jumped up to avoid the dodge. _His taijutsu got better, _Kakashi thought. Just then a lightning bolt was coming down on Naruto's clone. Sensing this the clone grabbed Kakashi by his vest and put Kakashi over his head to take the bolt the lightning. The lightning bolt hit Kakashi dead on. "Use your techniques after thinking carefully. Otherwise it can be used against you," said the clone while smiling. Kakashi just looked at Naruto and smiled. It took about a second and Kakashi puffed into thin air. _Damn, when did he use a clone? _The clone thought. Then it hit him, _he used it the same time I did, when the wall jutsu came up. Where is he then? _Just then something grabbed the clone's foot from below and pulled him into the ground. "Doton Shinjuuzanshu no jutsu" (Earth element: Suicidal Beheading), said the real Kakashi. "Look underneath the underneath," Kakashi said to the clone not knowing it wasn't the real Naruto. "I did, 'Kage Bunshin Harestu' (Kage Bunshin Explosion)," with that the clone exploded and Kakashi was thrown into the air. The real Naruto jumped out of his hiding place, did a few quick handseal and yelled, "Suiryuudan no Jutsu" (Water Dragon Blast). A huge dragon came out of the river and straight at Kakashi. Kakashi still haven't recovered from the Kage Bunshin Explosion and took the Water Dragon Blast straight on. This attack knocked Kakashi to the floor. Naruto quickly started to run at Kakashi realizing he had the advantage.

Knowing that Naruto was coming Kakashi quickly got up, but to his surprise he didn't see where Naruto was. He felt an arm around his neck and lost his breath as Naruto tighten his arm and gave Kakashi a rear-naked to choke him from behind. Kakashi was losing his oxygen supply and couldn't breath. _Shit, I'm in deep trouble, I gotta hurry or I won't last long. _He remembered that he landed near a tree when he was knocked down by the Dragon Blast. Knowing that this was his only chance he gather his chakra to his feet and jumped backwards his hardest with Naruto behind him. Naruto's back hit the tree very hard. He tried not to loosen his grip on Kakashi, but for a second his grip loosen. Fortunately for Kakashi, this was enough time to give Naruto an elbow to the stomach. This made Naruto lose his grip entirely and he bent down holding his stomach.

As Naruto was still holding his stomach, Kakashi give him a hard back-hand which sent Naruto 6 feet to the side. Kakashi was catching his breath while Naruto was slowly getting up. When Naruto got up, Kakashi could see the there was blood dripping from the side of Naruto's mouth.

"Nice move there Kakashi-sensei, I thought I had you," Naruto said to Kakashi while having a huge grin.

Naruto couldn't see, but he could tell that Kakashi was smiling under his mask.

"Okay, round 2," Naruto said. He quickly rushed at Kakashi and threw a left punch straight at Kakashi face, but it was blocked. Naruto's next attack was a kick to Kakashi's stomach, which was blocked also. He threw another left punch that Kakashi barely dodged. Sensing that he had an advantage he quickly threw a right punch to Kakashi's stomach which connected. As Kakashi was dropping from the punch, he felt Naruto's right knee connecting to his face which sent him flying upwards. _He's too fast, even if I can see his movements, my body can't keep up with his. _While he was thinking this, he felt a hand on his right ankle. Naruto pulled Kakashi straight down from his mid-air flight by his ankles and slammed him hard to the ground. While on the ground Kakashi did a leg sweep that caused Naruto to fall to the ground also. They both got up at the same time.

When they got up, both of them were waiting for the other to attack. _His taijutsu is too good, _Kakashi thought. _Damn, I knew that Jiraiya was going to teach him some strong ninjutsu, but I didn't expect his taijutsu to increase so much. If I don't think of something I'm screwed, _Kakashi thought himself.

_Damn, he's different from before. I would expect him to be more tired already taking so many hits. He doesn't even seem that tired yet, _Naruto thought.

As Naruto was thinking this he saw the dots on Kakashi's left eye swirling. Naruto immediately felt his head spinning. He also couldn't see straight. _Shit, I'm under a genjutsu, _Naruto thought. When he looked up at Kakashi, he saw three Kakashi standing there waiting for him to attack. He focused his chakra and tried to dispel the genjutsu. _Damn, it's harder to control my chakra also. Oh well, guess I'll have to just attack him, _Naruto thought. The moment Naruto ran at Kakashi he knew he made a wrong move. It felt like the ground underneath him was moving.

Kakashi, knowing that his move would not last long started his attack on Naruto. He quickly pulled out his kunai and tried to stab Naruto on the chest. To his surprise Naruto pulled out his own kunai with his left hand and blocked it. Naruto couldn't stop Kakashi's right roundhouse to his face though. This sent Naruto flying 7 feet where he landed on the ground hard. Kakashi immediately jump and stomp on Naruto with all of his weight. This made Naruto cough up blood. He grabbed Naruto by the shirt with his left hand and proceeded to lift him up. He tried to stab Naruto's chest with his kunai in his right hand, but Naruto blocked it again with his own kunai. He threw Naruto to the ground 5 feet away from him.

_Damn, I feel like I have to throw up, _Naruto thought. He was slow to get up. When he got up he could see that Kakashi was coming at him again. Kakashi took a swipe at Naruto's left arm with his kunai which connected. Kakashi then tried to stab Naruto's right thigh. Naruto tried to move out of the way, but was too slow and the kunai struck deeply into Naruto's leg. Kakashi threw a left punch to Naruto's face which connected, but didn't make Naruto fall. It managed to make him off-balance. Sensing his advantage Kakashi tried to stab Naruto in the stomach, but Naruto blocked the attack with his kunai. Kakashi continued his assault on Naruto. But, something was wrong.

_What's the hell is wrong?_ Kakashi thought, _he's blocking all the attack to his vital organs. _Then it hit Kakashi, since Naruto knew that he couldn't dispel the genjutsu he was only focusing his concentration when Kakashi was aiming at his vital organs. _He was probably feeling the effects weaken also. He's trying to stall for time until he can dispel it, _Kakashi thought. As Kakashi thought this he heard Naruto said, "Kai." (Release)

Naruto was released from the genjutsu and he was panting. "Damn, what the hell was that? I hope that I'll never feel like that again," Naruto said in a weak voice.

He straighten himself up feeling all the pain in his body. _I can't look at his eyes and get trapped in that genjutsu again, _Naruto thought to himself._ I'm lucky that I've been training so much, I still have some strength left in me._

Naruto did some handseals and said, "Kokuangyou no Jutsu" (Absolute Darkness). The place went completely dark.

_I see, Naruto knows that I can fight in complete darkness, but he is using the dark so that he could avoid my Sharingan and so that my Sharigan would lose it's predicting ability, _Kakashi thought to himself.

_Focus Naruto, I haven't made him bleed yet so I can't use my sense of smell, but focus and you will find him by sensing his chakra, _Naruto thought to himself. _There._ Naruto quickly went left and did a jumping roundhouse kick which connected with Kakashi's shoulder. He landed and threw an uppercut right under Kakashi's chin. Naruto tried to kick Kakashi's face with his left leg, but Kakashi dodged it and gave Naruto a swift kick to the back of his knees. Kakashi hopped back a few times and thought to himself, _what do I do? Even though he's more damaged he has the advantage over me right now._ _Got it. _He bit his thumb and said, "Summoning no Jutsu," with that he slammed his hands to the ground and out came three dogs. The dogs all started to rush Naruto at once. One dog, a big yellow German Shepard, aimed his bite at Naruto's legs, which Naruto managed to dodge by doing a front flip. Just as he as about to land another dog, this time a big black Bulldog aimed his bite at Naruto's chest, but Naruto put his right hand up and the dog bit his forearm instead. The third dog, a grey Pitt-bull, jump straight for Naruto's neck while the Bulldog was still on Naruto's arm. Naruto managed to kick the Pitt-bull which let out a little yelp when it was kicked. _Stupid dog, let go of my forearm, _Naruto thought. Just then he felt Kakashi coming in with a punch aimed at his stomach. Naruto managed to move the dog right in the way of Kakashi's punch which caused the dog to lose its grip.

Naruto knew that he wasn't good at fighting against animals. Ever since he started learning taijutsu he has lost some of his 'natural fighting instinct'. His analyzation of human taijutsu has grown, but while it grew, it was slowly replacing his 'natural fighting instinct' skills. Of course Naruto wouldn't want to change that, but in this situation it didn't help him. There was nothing left to do.

"Release," Naruto said and the darkness disappeared leaving him in the open rainy field again. Naruto saw that he was surrounded by three dogs and Kakashi. Naruto wiped the blood by his mouth with his right thumb, slammed his hands into the ground and said "Summoning no Jutsu." A huge frog popped into existence. The frog was squatting and it was as tall as Naruto's waist. If it stood up it would have been slightly taller than Naruto. The frog was orange with purple lips and purple marks right above its eyebrows. The frog also wore a blue jacket that didn't have sleeves and that was opened in the front. On the frog's back there was two long swords. One sword was completely black while the other sword was completely white.

The reason why Naruto released his 'Absolute Darkness' jutsu was because he knew that a frog's sense of smell wasn't good. Compared to a dog, it was completely useless. He also knew that a frog's primary sense was sight and if he were to summon a frog in complete darkness, it would just be suicide.

"Yo, you need help Naruto?" Gamakichi asked Naruto.

"Yeah, you take care of the animals like always alright. You're also an animal so it's easier for you to fight them. I'll take care of Kakashi-sensei. Use everything you have because even though he's my sensei we're taking this seriously," Naruto told Gamakichi.

"Gotcha," Gamakichi replied to Naruto. He pulled out his two swords. He immediately jumped at Pitt-bull and used the sword in his right hand to do a downward attack. The dog did a little hop to the left to avoid the attack. Immediately Gamakichi's used the sword in his left hand to make a horizontal at the Pitt-bull. The Pitt-bull made a 'pop' and disappeared. There were only two dogs left.

"My, my, your companion there is good," Kakashi was talking about Gamakichi.

Naruto smiled and said, "Yeah, we've been training together. I would call him sometimes and we would train. Though I don't want him getting used to fighting with humans because as you can see I need him to help me when fighting with animals."

The two dogs surrounded Gamakichi. The German Shepard was on his right while the Bulldog was on his left. After a few seconds the German Shepard jumped and aimed his attack at Gamakichi's face. Gamakichi managed to duck low enough that the dog went over his head. As the German Shepard was going over his head he stabbed the dog's belly with the sword in his right hand. There was a 'pop' and the German Shepard disappeared. Kakashi, knowing that his other dog wouldn't be able to harm Gamakichi made some handseals, put his hands onto the ground and said, "Unsummon." With that the Bulldog disappeared.

Gamakichi smiled and asked Naruto, "Yo, you want my help with your sensei also?"

Naruto replied, "It's alright Gamakichi, I think I'll take it from here and thanks for your help."

"Alright, whatever, call me if you need me again," Gamakichi said. With that he also made a 'pop' and disappeared.

"Was that a wise move Naruto?" Kakashi asked him in his lazy tone.

"Yes, I don't want any harm done to Gamakichi. Even though summons can't die, they can get badly injured. I wouldn't be able to face myself if he was seriously injured. That's why I only call him whenever I'm fighting animals," Naruto told Kakashi.

Kakashi could see that Naruto was near his limit. Kakashi was also near his limit. _This fight is going to end pretty soon_, Kakashi thought.

Naruto was pulling something out of his right pocket. It was a forehead protector with the markings of the Hidden Village of the Cloud. He wrapped the forehead protector over his eyes. Naruto knew this was going to be bad, but he didn't have any choice. If Kakashi put him under that genjutsu again, it would be all over.

Kakashi smiled and thought to himself, _wise choice, but can you take me like that Naruto?_ He did a few handseal and said, "Dageki Kaze no jutsu" (Blowing wind). As Kakashi said that Naruto felt the force of the wind blowing on his face.

Naruto knew this was going to be hard. Unlike last time when he couldn't see, Kakashi could see while he couldn't. Even if he used his ears to locate where Kakashi was going light traveled much faster than sound. These few milliseconds would cost him. What's worse, Kakashi used that wind jutsu so that Naruto couldn't locate him by scent. He remembered Kakashi using blood when he summoned his dog and hoped that Kakashi forgot. The jutsu also made it a lot harder to hear when Kakashi was going to attack him. He had to try to locate him solely based on Kakashi's chakra which he was hiding. To make matters even worse Kakashi can use the Sharingan's predictability technique to predict where Naruto was going attack.

Kakashi immediately went to Naruto's left side and tried to kick Naruto on his stomach. Naruto sensed this and blocked Kakashi's kick with both arms and tried to sweep Kakashi's leg. Kakashi jumped over the sweep and did an axe kick that was aimed at Naruto's shoulder. Naruto managed to stop the attack by catching it with both of his hands. While grabbing Kakashi's leg he swung Kakashi and threw him 10 feet back. Kakashi did a flip and managed to land on his feet.

_Even though he's blind his taijutsu is still on par with mine. This can take forever if nothing happens, _Kakashi thought to himself.

"Naruto, take off your blindfold. I can see that this will take forever before either of us loses. We're both almost out of chakra right now, what do you say we end this with the next attack?" Kakashi asked his former student.

If it was somebody else that told Naruto to take off his blindfold, he wouldn't have done it, but he knew Kakashi would never do anything cheap. So Naruto took off his blindfold, smiled and said, "Alright, let's do it then."

Chakra started to gather in Kakashi's left hand and in a moment there was a loud noises like a thousand birds. There was lightning radiating from the chakra. The chakra was also in a shape of a blade.

Naruto started to gather charka in his right hand and in a moment there was a beautiful round ball made entirely of chakra. If one was to look at the ball, they could see chakra swirling perfectly within the ball.

They both ran at each other at full speed with Kakashi yelling, "Chidori" while Naruto yelling "Rasengan." There was a huge white light emitting when the two jutsus collided. Kakashi was pouring more and more of his chakra into his jutsu while Naruto was also doing the same thing. After 10 seconds there was a BANG so loud that people in the Hokage tower could hear it.

Both Naruto and Kakashi were thrown 50 feet back by the explosion. Both of them were on the ground unconscious after the attack.

_**Jutsus Descriptions:**_

**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Shuriken Shadow Clone**- (A-rank) A shuriken is thrown and is replicate by the user. These are real shurikens that can damage a person. (This jutsu is in the manga, Sarutobi used it against Orochimaru.)

**Doton Kabe no jutsu: Earth Wall**- (D-rank) A weak wall the pops out of the ground when the jutsu is used. A hard hit can usually go through it. It's mainly used to block projecticles when a person can't dodge the thrown object in time.

**Raikou Kara Zenki no jutsu: Lightning from above**- (C-rank) A mini lightning storm that automatically targets the enemy and sends bolts of lightning at random times. It only send a few lightning bolts depending on how much chakra was used and the storm disappears after the bolts are used up.

**Doton Shinjuuzanshu no jutsu: Earth element Suicidal Beheading**- (D-rank) this jutsu puts the user underground to hide themselves. (This jutsu is in the manga, Kakashi used it against Sasuke during the genin test)

**Kage Bunshin Harestu: Shadow Clone Explosion**- (A-rank) This jutsu makes the shadow clone explode. (This jutsu is in the manga, where Itachi used it in his fight against the Kakashi and the team. I don't know what it's called though)

**Suiryuudan no Jutsu: Water Dragon Blast**- (B-rank) A huge water dragon pops out of the water and attacks the foe. (This jutsu is in the manga, Zabuza and Kakashi used it.)

**Sharingan**- (A-rank) The jutsu that Kakashi cast on Naruto with his Sharigan causes the victim to think slower, react slower, make it harder to focus their chakra, causes poor judgment, and makes it harder for them to walk correctly. They say that it's comparable to taking 20 shots of Barcardi 151. Unfortunately for Naruto, he's not a drunken master like Lee. The only disadvantage is that it lasts for about 15 minutes and it slowly starts to lose its effect after 5 minutes.

**Kokuangyou no Jutsu: Bringer of Absolute Darkness**- (A-rank) This genjutsu causes total darkness. The only genjutsu that Naruto learned knowing that one day he would probably use it against Sasuke. It took him nearly two years to learn it. (This jutsu is in the manga)

**Summoning Technique**- (B-rank) This justsu summons an animal that the user signed a blood contract with.

**Dageki Kaze no jutsu: Blowing wind**- (D-rank) This jutsu causes the wind to blow violently around 70 mph. It doesn't do much, but in this case Kakashi is trying to use the wind to mask his scent and also to disrupt the noises so that it'll be harder to detect him.

**Chidori**- (A-rank) The person using this jutsu gathers chakra in their hand and forms it into a lightning blade. It's one of Kakashi's favorite attack.

**Rasengan**- (A-rank) A small ball made entire of concentrated chakra. If you look at it you can see the chakra spinning inside the ball.


	6. Ch 6:My Other Teammate

**Chapter 6: My Other Teammate**

"BANG," the loud noise reached the Hokage Tower where Tsunade was busy looking over her papers. Sakura was also there filing Tsunade's papers for her while Shizune was behind Tsunade looking at each document as Tsunade signed her name.

All three looked out her window to see where the sound came from. It was over in the training area and they could also see a huge white light that was starting to disappear in that area.

"Shizune, Sakura, go over there and see what happened," Tsunade told her assistant and her student. That noise did not make Tsunade feel good

Sakura and Shizune immediately said, "Yes," and left to the area where the explosion took place. When they got there they saw a huge crater about 20 feet wide and an unconscious Naruto that was 50 feet away from the crater and also an unconscious Kakashi that was also 50 feet away from the crater, but at the opposite side.

"Sakura go and grab Naruto while I'll get Kakashi. Take him immediately to the hospital," Shizune told Sakura. Sakura went and picked up Naruto while Shizune went to pick up Kakashi. They both took them to the hospital.

"What!?" was the words that came out of Tsunade's mouth when Shizune and Sakura told her what happened. She immediately went to the hospital and into the room where Kakashi and Naruto were staying. They were both unconscious with tubes sticking in their mouths.

"They'll be okay Tsunade-sama," said a medical nurse when Tsunade entered the room. "They're just unconscious, that's all, no major injuries except for a few scratches, bruises, and overexertion of chakra." A few scratches was not what Tsunade saw when she looked at Naruto. He was cut and stabbed in so many different places, some large and some small, but Tsunade sighed. _At least he wasn't hit in any vital spots, _she thought to herself. She took a look at Kakashi. _He doesn't look as bad as Naruto, _she thought. She immediately changed her opinion when she took a closer inspection. Kakashi had bruises all over himself, from his stomach to his arms.

A few days passed and Naruto was waking up along with Kakashi. Sakura was already in the room sitting on a chair when they woke up.

When Naruto looked at her face he could tell that she was not happy. Not knowing what to say or why she was mad he said, "Uhh, did I do something wrong?"

"Why didn't you tell me Naruto?" Sakura said in a hurt tone.

Naruto, not knowing what she was talking about said, "Oh, sorry, me and Kakashi were just sparring, kind of went overboard, but…"

"I don't care about what you guys were doing," Sakura interrupted Naruto. "Why didn't you tell me that there were 9 Class-S ninjas after? Kakashi-sensei, don't think that you're off the hook, I know that you knew, so why didn't you tell me? I thought we were a team, that's not what you do to teammates?" She said in a very hurt voice. Naruto could see that she was almost crying. Water was in her eyes, the only thing left was for a tear to drop.

"Sakura, I'm sorry, but it wasn't my place to tell you. Also, Tsunade-sama forbid it," Kakashi said.

Sakura gave Kakashi a very angry look. _I should just shut-up, yeah that's what I'll do, _Kakashi thought. She focused her attention back on Naruto when she heard his voice.

"I'm sorry, I truly am, but this is my problem Sakura," Naruto said to her in a defeated voice.

"Why do you do that Naruto? Why do you always help people, but when it comes to you, you try to hold everything on your shoulders? You have friends that are willing to give their life just to help you, but they can't help if they don't know anything," Sakura said in a very sad voice.

"That's the problem, they're willing to give their lives to help me. I don't want them to die because of me," Naruto answered her.

"That's the 'stupidest' reason I have ever heard. You know what, if you don't tell them then I will," Sakura said in a very loud voice, putting a lot of emphasize on 'stupidest.'

"No, you won't Sakura," Naruto said loudly, quite angry himself now.

"Yes, I will," Sakura replied back in a commanding tone.

"No, you won't," Naruto repeated raising his voice now.

"Yes, I will and you won't be able to stop me," Sakura said.

As she said that she got up and started to leave the room, "You know I shouldn't even be telling guys this for leaving me in the dark, but since you're awake now I suggest you two leave and hide for a moment before…"

BAMMM, the door flew open with such a serious force that it made Naruto and Kakashi's hair lift. At the door stood Tsunade, her face as angry as ever. "Before what, Sakura?" Tsunade said to her student.

"Ehehe, oh nothing Tsunade-sama, I should get going now," Sakura said in a very small voice. With that she ran pass her sensei without looking at her, knowing that her full rage was going to pop it's ugly head.

_Oh man, we're in deep shit now, _was all that Kakashi and Naruto could think of.

"What the hell were you two doing?" Tsunade said in a very loud voice.

"We were sparring ba-chan, don't worry about us," Naruto said in his regular voice.

"Sparring and trying to kill each other are not the same thing. I can't have two of my strongest ninjas trying to kill each other," Tsunade told Naruto.

If this was a different situation Naruto would have been very happy knowing that Tsunade just called him 'one of her strongest ninjas.'

"Don't worry, we weren't trying to kill each other," Naruto said trying to calm her.

"So, using Chidori and Rasengan is considered not trying to kill each other?" Tsunade asked not expecting an answer.

_At least her voice was calming down now, _Naruto thought. "Like I said, don't worry, we both agreed to it."

Tsunade gave a piercing look at Kakashi. _Naruto, shut-up before we both get into more trouble. Just let her yell at us please, _Kakashi thought.

"It doesn't matter if you both agreed on it or not," Tsunade replied to Naruto. She then focused her attention on Kakashi.

"So, Kakashi, is that right? I kind of assumed it from the start already, but is what Naruto said right? I want to hear it out of your mouth. Did you agree to have this type of 'spar' with Naruto," Tsunade questioned Kakashi in her normal voice, but he could sense her anger behind them.

"Yes, Naruto is right, Tsunade-sama. He came to my house and asked for a spar. Before we started we both agreed not to hold back, even if it meant one of us might die. Of course, we tried not to kill each other, but we didn't hold back anything in our arsenal," Kakashi answered Tsunade in his lazy tone.

"I would have expected this out of someone like Naruto, but of all the people I would not have expected it from you," Tsunade told him.

"To tell you the truth Tsunade-sama, I really did want to test Naruto to my fullest also. Of course I wouldn't have ever suggested it to Naruto, but when he came up to ask me to spar, I couldn't refuse. I was itching to find out how strong he has become and to test my abilities. He wanted to see how much he improved and he also wanted to see how he stood up against a Sharigan user. That's what we both wanted. Also right now, he's the only one that can fight me at an even level. I know that you won't fight me at your fullest potential. And even though Gai is a good rival, he mainly uses taijutsu and I wanted to fight a ninja that was a ninjutsu powerhouse like me," Kakashi told Tsunade.

"I don't care what you both want. Don't ever do something like that again," Tsunade said to both Kakashi and Naruto.

"Well anyways Naruto, since you haven't been put on a team since you came back you're going to do missions with Kakashi. Is that alright with you Naruto?" She asked him already knowing the answer.

Naruto smiled and said, "Yes, okay ba-chan."

"Well I'm off," Tsunade said. With that she left the hospital room leaving Kakashi and Naruto alone.

"Well, that didn't go as bad as I thought," Naruto said to Kakashi looking at him.

"No, it didn't," Kakashi replied. "Anyways, you've improved tremendously Naruto. You taijutsu is very good. Where did you learn it?"

"Ero-sennin told me to train in the Hidden Village of Cloud with his friend for some time after I learned most of his ninjutsu. But, you've improved tremendously also, I wouldn't think you would have done so many jutsu and still be up fighting. If I remembered correctly, I don't really remember you using that much jutsus in any of your fights," Naruto said to Kakashi.

"Yea, I've been training for the last three years," Kakashi answered Naruto.

Before thinking it through Naruto asked, "Why have you been training for the last three years?"

Kakashi just smiled underneath his mask and Naruto said in a low voice, "Oh… Thank you Kakashi-sensei."

"Don't worry about it. Let's go to Tsunade-sama's office and see if she has any missions for us," Kakashi said. With that they both got out of bed and got dress.

About a month and a half went by after their incident. Kakashi was impress how Naruto has developed. He knew Naruto was already an excellent ninja in fighting, but he didn't expect Naruto to be so analytical in his missions. During their missions Kakashi would let Naruto lead sometimes instead of him. One time Naruto surprised the hell out of him when he came up with a strategy that was better than his for the situation.

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Naruto was at Ichiraku just finishing his ramen when he saw Shikamaru walking towards him.

"Hey, Naruto, Tsunade-sama wants you in her office," Shikamaru said to him.

Shikamaru was one of the first person that talked to him after Sakura had told the whole Rookie 9 and team Gai that 10 Class-S nins were after Naruto. All of his friends were angry at him for not telling them and didn't speak with him for a week after she told them. She still didn't tell the group why 10 Class-S nins were after Naruto because she thought that it was his right.

"You know what she wants?" Naruto asked him.

"Nope, she didn't tell me," Shikamaru answered him.

Naruto entered Tsunade's office and asked her, "What is it ba-chan, another mission?"

"Yes it is Naruto, the one that you've been waiting for," Tsunade told him.

"You mean…" Naruto's eyes became a little larger when he heard what she told him.

"Yes, your next mission is to rescue Sasuke," Tsunade said.

"You found out where the hideouts at?" Naruto asked in a relaxed tone.

"You can go when Jiraiya gets back. He'll be here in a month. He wanted to go with you also to face his old friend. As for the last question, we know where the hideout is located. I'll give you a mission briefing whenever Jiraiya gets here. I just wanted to tell you because I know it's been on your mind," Tsunade stated to Naruto.

"Thanks, ba-chan," Naruto said in a happy voice.

"You may go now, there's not much missions today so you're free," Tsunade told him.

Before Naruto started to leave he remembered his promise and asked Tsunade, "Hey, you already know how I was working for another Hidden Village Right?" Tsunade nodded her head for him to continue. "I was wondering if my two teammates from the Hidden Village of Cloud could also come with me on this mission. I promised one of them that I would send a message whenever I go and rescue him."

Tsunade started to think this over. She knew that they were low on ninjas in the village. Besides this mission would probably be only a four group mission and it would be good if the team was comfortable with each other and knew how each other work. "Sure, just make sure that they're okay with it also," Tsunade told him.

Naruto left the Hokage Tower and was going home. He needed to get his message to Yugito, so he decided that he would use one of the messenger eagles. Naruto went home first to write his letter. After he finished writing it he went to the tree where all the eagles were perch and climbed it.

"Take this letter to Yugito in the Hidden Village of Cloud, okay," He asked the eagle tying the letter to its feet.

After Naruto finished attaching the letter to the eagle's feet, it stretched out its wing and started flying north.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 weeks later

Naruto was still waiting outside for Yugito and Kato arrival. Naruto already received his reply about 3 days after he sent his letter. He knew that it took about 2 weeks to travel from the Hidden Village of Cloud to the Hidden Village of Leaf, but he was still anxiously waiting for his former teammates. It was already seven at night and he decided that they wouldn't make it to Konoha that day.

Naruto started to leave entrance when he saw two shadows that were about ½ mile from him. He quickly went to the shadow figures hoping that it was his former teammates.

As he got closer he could see that it was them. While he was still running to them he yelled out, "Hey, Yugito, hey, Kato-sensei." He quickly reached them and said with a smile, "Hi, long time no see."

"Hey, Naruto. How have you've been?" said Kato in his regular voice while wearing a smile.

"Hi, Naruto, I thought that you would forget that promise you made to me," Yugito said.

"Didn't I tell you I never go back on my promises?" Naruto asked her with a smile.

"Yes, but it was so long ago," Yugito replied in a softer voice, ashamed that she thought Naruto might have forgotten.

"Anyways, I got to go back home Naruto," Kato told him.

"What, I thought you were coming with us Kato-sensei?" Naruto asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Sorry, but I can't. The village needs me. I came with Yugito just to protect her," Kato told him. Seeing the disappointed look on Naruto's face he said, "Don't worry, you guys will be fine. Jiraiya is going with you guys anyways. Alright guess I'll start heading back, see you Naruto."

"Wait don't go yet, at least stay so I can show you around first," Naruto said to his sensei.

"Sorry, I got to get back as soon as possible Naruto. Raikage's order," Kato said to his former student. After he said that he waved at Naruto and say, "Okay, hope you save your teammate Naruto. Knowing you I expect to see him sometimes. Bye." With that he started walking north. He walked a few steps and stop, "Oh Naruto, would you mind escorting Yugito back when this is over?"

"No problem, Kato-sensei," Naruto answered him.

The truth was that Kato could have gone with Naruto and Yugito, but decided that it would be a good time for them to spend time with each other without him around. He knew that Orochimaru was a very skilled ninja, but they also had Jiraiya on their side already and he was going also.

"I guess I'll show you around Konoha and you can meet my friends. Come follow me," Naruto said to his former teammate Yugito in an excited voice.

They were walking along the road when they saw Chouji. Chouji had changed a lot from the three years that Naruto has been away. A big difference was that Chouji grew out his hair. His brown hair reached the back of his neck now. He also wore a white vest with his family symbol on the front. Most of his clothes resembled a samurai now instead of a ninja. This fitted him though, but Chouji was a tank not an agile ninja. The biggest difference was the way he wore his forehead protector. Instead of wearing his forehead protector like a diaper on his head like he used to, he wore it just like everyone else now.

"Hey Chouji, do you know where everyone's at?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, I was just about to go and meet them at the Barbeque restaurant for dinner. Who's that with you?" Chouji questioned Naruto.

"That's why I wanted to meet everyone. I wanted everyone to meet my former teammate, Yugito," Naruto told Chouji.

"Hi, a friend of Naruto is a friend of mine," Chouji offered his right hand.

"Hello Chouji, thanks for the warm welcome," Yugito said shaking his hand.

"Well let's get going then, I want you to meet everyone," Naruto told them.

Naruto, Chouji, and Yugito went to barbeque restaurant to find that everyone was there already.

"I can't believe it Chouji, you're the last one here. I think that's a first," Ino made a comment to Chouji.

"Dad wouldn't let me out before I finished my chores," Chouji responded to his teammate.

"Heh, didn't know you had a girlfriend Naruto?" Shikamaru said in a lazy voice trying to make him feel uncomfortable. It didn't work.

"Whatever, Shikamaru, well this is my former teammate, Yugito. Yugito, these are my friends. I can't believe you're all here. I thought that some of you might be on missions or something," Naruto stated with a smile.

"There hasn't been much missions lately," Tenten told him. She wore an ANBU mask sideways revealing her face. The mask was completely white and had the shape of an eagle. There were a few black lines that went from the cheeks all the way back. She wore the typical ANBU outfit, completely blue pants and cut-off shirt with a white vest that covered the shirt. She also wore a white forearm protector on each side of her arms. On her back she carried a long black sword. Her left shoulder had the ANBU tattoo.

"I can take your word for it since you're in ANBU and all," Naruto said to Tenten.

Naruto let them introduce each other and sat with his friends. Yugito took a seat next to him.

"So, how do you like Konoha?" Ino asked Yugito.

"I haven't been around yet because I just barely got here. It's pretty late so I think I'll check it out tomorrow. So far I guess it's okay," Yugito replied.

"What do you think of Naruto?" Kiba asked smirking.

He received a hit from Sakura for that. "Don't ask such rude questions, Kiba."

To Sakura's surprise Yugito started to answer, "Well, Naruto's a good teammate. He's also someone that I can rely on. He's pretty strong I guess."

"Only pretty strong?" Naruto questioned his former teammate.

"Yes, 'only pretty strong,'" Yugito answered him back. Everyone chuckled at this, even Neji and Shino.

To everyone's surprise Hinata made a comment in her soft and low voice, "if you categorized Naruto as 'only pretty strong', then you must be very strong, Yugito."

"No, not really, I'm okay I guess," Yugito gave her answer.

Lee interrupted everyone, "Yugito-san, I've seen that Naruto has improve tremendously in his taijutsu. I'm assuming it was because of training with you. If you don't mind I would like to test my skills against yours whenever you're free."

Yugito smiled, "Sure, Lee-san, we can spar whenever. Just not today though alright, because I got to get settle in first."

Lee's eyes were burning with fire, "of course, thanks for you acceptance. I will wait whenever you're ready."

After gossiping for almost two hours the restaurant was beginning to close and everyone decided that it was time to go.

"Alright, I'll see you guys tomorrow," Naruto said to the group. Naruto and Yugito were walking alone in the dark without saying a word to each other, each in their own thoughts. _Bad news, Kato isn't here. Without him around I don't know if I can keep this feeling in check. Or is that good news? No stupid, I can't do something like that to Kato. I can't try to steal his girlfriend. He's my sensei and thought me most of my taijutsu. I can't stab him in the back like that, _Naruto thought to himself.

_I wonder if we can work well as a team without Kato around? We've always been with Kato when we went on missions together. Now that he isn't here, will we be successful? _Yugito thought.

It took five minutes before they reached Naruto's house. He took out out his keys and released the lock. Naruto opened the door and said, "Here's my home. It's not as big as yours, but make yourself at home."

It was indeed not as big as her house. There was a small kitchen and a small livingroom as she walked in. There was hardly any furniture around, just the basic needs to survive like a refrigator, a small table with two chairs, and a stove. She looked down the hallway and saw two doors.

"You can sleep in my room while I sleep out here in the livingroom Yugito," Naruto told her.

"No, it's alright Naruto, I can sleep in the livingroom," Yugito replied.

"No, you're a guest, you need to be comfortable," Naruto insisted.

After an hour of arguing over who was to sleep in the bedroom Naruto finally convinced her to sleep in the bedroom.

Naruto was fast asleep on the livingroom floor while in Naruto's room Yugito was still up thinking. _I hope that I don't have any nightmares. Please don't let me have any nightmares._

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto was already up cooking when he heard a loud knock at door.

"Hold up," he quickly went to the door and opened it to see who it was.

"Hey Naruto is Yugito here?" asked Sakura. She was with Ino.

"Come in, I'll get her for you," Naruto told them. They entered Naruto's livingroom. Naruto went to his bedroom and a second later Yugito came out with him. Naruto went back to the kitchen to cook.

"Oh hi Sakura, hi Ino," Yugito said when she entered the livingroom.

"Hi Yugito," they both replied.

"Me and Sakura were just wondering if you're doing anything today. If you aren't doing anything then we were just going to ask if you wanted to go shopping with us today?" Ino asked Yugito.

Yugito had a worried look on her face. _Shopping? I hardly ever do that, _she thought.

Sakura saw her face. "Come on it'll be fun, you don't want to hang out with Naruto all day do you?"

"Hey, I am here you know," Naruto said when he heard what Sakura said about him.

"I know," replied Sakura. She turned her attention back to Yugito, "So, what do you say?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt," Yugito replied in a small voice. This brought a huge smile to both of Ino and Sakura's face. They immediately grabbed her arm and rushed her to the door.

Before they got out they heard Naruto said in a little happy tone, "You'll regret it Yugito."

"Shut up Naruto, she will not regret it," replied both Ino and Sakura at the same time in a loud voice. They slammed the door when they got out.

They went to their first clothing store which was a sexy lingerie store. Yugito never imagine herself wearing these types of clothes. Sakura and Ino kept bugging her to try on some on.

"Come on Yugito, you have the body for it, we can see that already. Why don't you want to wear anything that shows it off?" Ino said to Yugito.

"I don't know, it doesn't suit me," Yugito replied.

"Just try it on," Sakura told her. They kept pressuring her until she tried some on. She went to the dressing room and tried on a couple of them. To her surprise it wasn't that bad. Not that she liked wearing it, but she thought it looked nice.

"Well, are you going to come out so we can see it or are you going to hide in there all day and keep it to yourself?" Ino asked her while she was in the dressing room trying on her third lingerie. _What? Go out there so they can see it. Are they serious or are they just playing a trick on me? _Yugito thought.

"Hurry up Yugito, we want to see how it looks like," Sakura said to her. _I guess they're serious, _Yugito thought.

She opened the door and saw Sakura and Ino there waiting there excitedly like it was Christmas day.

"Wow, that looks amazing on you Yugito. You should really get it," Ino said. It was a red robe lingerie with long sleeves. The material was a see-through material. The robe had only two buttons that could be buttoned near the chest which caused the body of the robe to slant behind her back and reveal her stomach when it was buttoned. The panties were also red, but a little darker than the robe.

"You think so?" Yugito asked.

"Yes you should," Sakura answered in an honest tone.

Sakura and Ino tried on many lingeries and compared it with each other. They also decided which ones were good and which ones were bad. Yugito really didn't like shopping as much, but tried a few more on anyways just to pass the time.

They finished shopping. Sakura and Ino bought two outfit each while Yugito only bought the red one. She really wasn't going to buy it, but Ino and Sakura wouldn't let her leave until she did.

When they got outside Ino said with a smirk, "So Yugito, who are you going to wear that for? Are you going to wear it for Naruto?"

"No," she quickly responded. "I don't think I'll wear it for anyone."

"Kind of quick to answer there eh Yugito?" Sakura said.

"No seriously," Yugito responded.

Sakura and Ino just laughed and said, "Sure Yugito, sure, we believe you. You can tell us, we won't tell him. It's a girl thing."

"Hey you haven't ate yet right? We kind of pulled you out of Naruto's house before he finished cooking so what do you say we go to a restaurant? I'll treat you since you're a guest. Oh don't worry we won't be eating ramen," Ino said to Yugito.

Yugito replied with a smile, "Alright, I am kind of hungry."

They went to a local and started to order. Yugito ordered some steak with a side-plate of fried rice while Sakura and Ino ordered some salad. _My god, how do they survive on just eating rabbit food? Don't they need energy to train? _Yugito thought to herself.

While they were waiting for the food Ino questioned Yugito, "Who do you think is the best looking guy her in Konoha in our age group?"

"They're all pretty nice," Yugito responded.

"I didn't ask for nice, I asked who was the best looking guy?" Ino asked her again having a big smile this time.

"I really don't know," Yugito replied.

"Don't lie, you think Naruto's hot right? Come on Yugito just say it, it'll make you feel better. I won't lie Naruto has gotten better looking over the years. If I didn't know Naruto from before I might even go for him now," Sakura told her.

"Well I think Shikamaru's the best looking guy in our age group," Ino said.

"Yea, we already know that. Shikamaru's ok, but he's a real lazy ass. We weren't talking about personalities though right so I would have to say Neji, I love his hair," Sakura said to Ino.

"I wonder how he keeps his hair like that. It's a lot nicer and finer than ours. I wonder if he'll let us touch it. Let's ask him what conditioner he uses," Ino said to Sakura. Ino was brushing through her hair when she mentioned Neji's hair.

"He won't tell us. I know he'll say something like it's all natural or something like that and I know it can't be because look at Hinata's hair. They're first cousins and his hair is like silk while hers is just like ours. But his attitude isn't completely good also. He's too business like and doesn't know how to loosen up," Sakura said to Ino. Sakura was brushing her hair with her hands when she said this.

"Talking about Hinata, if you don't hurry Yugito I think she might go for Naruto," Ino said to Yugito.

When Ino said this, Yugito's heartbeat sped up a little.

"I doubt it, she doesn't have the courage to," Sakura said. "She's a nice girl, but I can't see Naruto and Hinata together. She's just too shy while Naruto is too upbeat. Naruto needs someone that he can talk too and I think Hinata wouldn't have good conversations with him."

"I can see him with you Yugito. You guys would make a fantastic couple," Sakura said to Yugito. "I can tell he's real happy when he's with you."

"Why do you say that?" Yugito questioned her.

"Even though Naruto is always smiling and laughing, I didn't see him truly smile yet until I saw you with him. When he introduced you to us he had a genuine smile. With all the things he's going through I can see why. With things like rescuing Sasuke and…" Sakura felt a kick to her shin from Ino underneath the table before she could finish her sentence.

"And what?" Yugito was interested in what was on her former teammates mind.

"Oh nothing, forget it," Sakura replied quickly. "Well anyways, Naruto's a good looking guy and doesn't have that much of a personality problem like other good looking guys. If you don't hurry Yugito, he's going to off the market pretty soon."

After they finished eating they went to go shopping again. This time it was just for regular clothes and not lingerie. They shopped the whole day and it was already around 8 o'clock when Yugito returned to Naruto's house.

She opened the door, put her shopping bag on the floor and took a seat in the kitchen chair. She saw that Naruto was in the kitchen cooking some food.

"Hey Yugito you're back. So how did it go?" Naruto asked Yugito almost laughing when he asked her.

"It was okay," Yugito answered.

"Don't lie, you hated it didn't you? They're my friends so it won't hurt me if you said that it was unpleasant and boring. I warned you, but you still went. Hahaha you deserve it," Naruto told her.

"Fine, I didn't like it. I didn't know that guys and clothes were all that your girlfriends talk about. They went on for hours about hair, perfume, clothes, nail polish, face wash, manicure, and make-up. I felt like I didn't really fit in with them," Yugito admitted.

"Ahhh, don't worry they love it. When they find someone who doesn't like these kinds of things they feel like they have an obligation to teach them. So you want to go on another trip with them to learn these things," Naruto asked her jokingly.

"No, I think I'll pass," Yugito replied. Just as she said this Naruto put a plate of pork with stir vegetables in front of her._ I never saw Naruto cook when he was at my house._ She thought it would look rude if she didn't eat so she decided to eat. She picked up the chopsticks and grabbed a piece of pork then ate it. To her surprise it was delicious. It was even better than at a high price restaurant.

She was surprised when Naruto came back to join her with a bowl of instant ramen. He sat straight across from her. She looked at him in a funny way. _Here was a guy who was probably one of the best cooks and he decides to eat instant ramen._

"What? Is something wrong?" Naruto asked when he saw that she was looking at him in a funny way.

"Well at first I didn't think you could cook, but I was proven wrong. Where did you learn how to cook? I was also wondering why someone who can cook as good as you would rather eat instant ramen?" she asked him.

"I'll answer your second question first. It's a pretty easy answer, I really like ramen. I figured you were probably tired of it so I decided to cook you something else. For the first question, I learned it from ero-sennin. Being in the woods with him without any ramen can make you learn how to become a decent cook. He was a fantastic cook, claiming that it helps with the ladies, pretty stupid if you ask me," Naruto answered her question.

"How come you never cooked when you were at our house?" Yugito questioned him.

"I can't just be going through your refrigator now can I? Plus I like Kato and your cooking anyways," Naruto answered.

Naruto finished his ramen before she was finished with her dish. He noticed the bag that was on the floor near the door. Yugito was still busy eating so she didn't notice Naruto going to her bag. While Naruto was reaching his hand in the bag and he said, "So what did you buy?"

With a look of horror Yugito quickly got up from her chair and snatched up the bag.

"Didn't anyone tell you it's not nice to go through someone's elses stuff?" Yugito said in a high voice.

"Come on we're teammates, you can show me what you have? I shouldn't have opened my big mouth before I didn't even see it yet. Can you show me now?" Naruto asked.

"No," Yugito said with a statement.

"Please Yugito, I just want to see what kind of clothes you like?" Naruto asked in a gentle tone.

"I said no, Naruto," Yugito replied back.

"Pretty please," Naruto was now making his eyes water like a cute dog.

"The answer is no and I'll never show you what I bought today," Yugito told him.

"Fine be that way. I thought we were teammates. Teammates don't keep secrets from each other," Naruto told her.

"Don't try a pull a guilt trip on me Naruto it won't work," Yugito said to him.

Naruto spent the next two hours guessing what was in Yugito's bag while she wasn't giving him any answers.

"Alright I'm off to bed Naruto," she told him.

"I shouldn't have alerted you when I had the chance," was all that Naruto could say. His arms were cross still thinking what was inside the mysteries bag.

"Tough luck, good-night Naruto," Yugito said to him and she proceed to his bedroom.

"Well good-night then, Yugito," Naruto said to her and as she was leaving.

**_No jutsus this_ _chapter_**


	7. Ch 7:Mission Rescue Sasuke II

**Chapter 7:Mission Rescue Sasuke II**

The next two weeks went by as Yugito spent her free time having sparring matches with Lee and Naruto. She mainly did this to avoid going shopping and talking about boys with Ino and Sakura again. Plus she liked sparring with Lee. Lee's taijutsu was completely different from hers or Naruto's. While her taijutsu was more of a finasse and fluid movement, Lee's taijutsu had more straight punches and hard hits. Naruto's taijutsu was different from her's and Lee's, he liked to grapple more than both of them. Overall she had fun having these sparring matches.

Naruto and Yugito were eating at Ichiraku when Kakashi came from behind them. "It's time Naruto, Hokage-sama wants you in her office."

"Alright, let's go then. You ready Yugito?" He asked her. She nodded.

They took off to the Hokage Tower and entered the Tsunade's office. When he entered the room he could already see that Sakura and Jiraiya was already there. When he took a look at Tsunade, Naruto saw that her eyes were red and her cheeks were slightly pink, almost like she was crying just a moment before. _Maybe, she just had a drink right before the meeting, _Naruto thought to himself. He proceed to scan the room. To his surprise Kakashi was missing. He and Yugito went to stand next to Sakura's left side. Jiraiya was on Sakura's right side.

"Is Kakashi-sensei going with us?" Naruto questioned Tsunade.

"No, Jiraiya is taking his place. Kakashi will be doing some other mission," she responded in a calm voice. Naruto did not like this. It wasn't that he didn't like that Jiraiya was coming with them, but the fact that he thought Kakashi would also be the one coming with him and Sakura because he was after, all the former sensei for team 7.

"I know what you're thinking Naruto, but it's the only way. Sorry, Kakashi can't come on this trip. The mission that he's on right now is very important," Jiraiya told him.

"Oh ba-chan this is my teammate from the Hidden Village of Cloud. Sorry I didn't bring her to you before. My friends wanted to take her out and we didn't have the time," Naruto told Tsunade.

_Did I hear him right?_ Yugito thought. _Did he just called her ba-chan? If I'm not mistakened the Hokage for the Hidden Village of Leaf was a sennin just like Jiraiya. First Jiraiya-sama and now Tsunade-sama. He must have a skill for survival. A person does not live long when they insult a sennin, never mind that Naruto has already insulted two of them._

"I don't think you should call her that Naruto nor should you called Jiraiya-sama, ero-sennin," Yugito said to him.

Naruto just laughed at her, "You know, your pretty funny sometimes Yugito for such a serious shinobi. You call them what you want and I'll call them what I want. Deal?"

"Naruto, I like your friend already. She has manners," Tsunade interrupted them.

"Okay, here are the briefings for the mission. This is going to be a S-Class mission because you're going against a sennin," Tsunade told the group.

"Unlike Kages, Orochimaru doesn't operate in his village. Only a few number of his most trusted followers know where he is at, mainly only Kabuto. Sasuke is also most likely there because Orochimaru is probably protecting his most precious vessel. Most of the time when he wants something done by the Hidden Village of Sound he gives his order to his subordinate Kabuto to handle the job. Orochimaru's location is three miles west of the Hidden Village of Sound, here," she pointed to the map indicating where the location was. "Your mission is easy, kill Orochimaru and Kabuto. Try to bring Sasuke back, but if he's a threat to your life also, you may kill him."

"Yeah, real easy, just kill a sennin and subordinate, and rescue his strong container. Got it," Naruto said, slightly wiping his hands in opposite ways like the job was already finished.

"Tsunade-sama, shouldn't we take some of our friends to help us rescue Sasuke," Sakura asked her sensei.

Naruto answered her question instead of Tsunade, "No, we shouldn't have more than four people. The more people that we have, the slower we move and the easier it is for enemy patrols to locate us. If they happen to locate us, back up would arrive and we would be fighting a whole Hidden Village. Our mission is not to fight the whole Hidden Village, but to rescue Sasuke."

"Yes, Naruto is correct Sakura. Any more people and enemy patrols might locate you guys. This mission is going to consist only four people," Tsunade told her.

"Alright you may leave when you're ready," Tsunade mentioned to the group.

"Yes," the group responded. With that they left the office.

Jiraiya looked back and gave Tsunade a warm smile before he left.

"Okay, you guys go get your stuff and we'll meet in the front of the village," Jiraiya told the group when they left the office.

They all went to get their gear and set off to the front of the village where Jiraiya was already patiently waiting.

"It will take approximately two days before we get to Orochimaru's hideout if we hurry," Jiraiya told the group as they arrived. "Let's move out. We won't have a formation yet until we get to the border of Fire country."

Jiraiya and Naruto were in the front while Sakura and Yugito were in the back. They weren't far from each other, but they were far enough not to hear each other's converstion. Naruto and Jiraiya seemed to be in some sort of conversation.

There was a weird silence between Yugito and Sakura so Sakura decided to break the silence. As she looked at Yugito's outfit which looked almost identical to Naruto's, she said, "So I guess you were the one who got Naruto out of that eye-sore looking outfit."

Yugito replied, "Yes, but it took a long time for him to leave that orange jacket and orange pants. I kept bugging him about his outfit and told him to change it, but he never listened. He changed it after we went on an B-Class mission."

"What happened?" Sakura asked her.

"Well, it was a stealthy mission and long story short, the enemy noticed Naruto's jacket when we were hiding. It was only a very small part, but he noticed it. That almost costs us our lives. The next day Naruto asked sensei for some different clothes," Yugito replied. She was going to tell Sakura that her clothes weren't at all stealthy also, but decided not to because Yugito didn't know her that well yet.

"So what do you really think of Naruto since it's only me and you now without Ino around?" Sakura asked Yugito.

Yugito answered, "To tell you the truth he doesn't talk to me much, he talks more with our sensei."

"You must be kidding," Sakura commented. _Has Naruto changed that much?_

"No I'm not, I can't put my finger on it, but it seems like he tries to avoid me. I don't know why. The first day that we met he seemed opened, but after that day it seemed that he shut himself out. We would talk often and a lot, but not anything of importance, just chitchat," Yugito told her.

_I'm going to pound Naruto after this mission, _Sakura thought.

"Well, he's pretty strong like I said before. We're about even when we spar or train," Yugito continued.

_Wow, this girl is strong if she's even with Naruto. Naruto is about Kakashi's level so that means that this girl is also near that level, _Sakura thought to herself.

"So do you like him?" Sakura asked her.

"Of course, he's my teammate. I have to like my teammate to be able to work with them," Yugito replied.

"You know what I mean," Sakura said to her.

_Not this again, _Yugito thought.

"I was trained not to have emotions towards other people," Yugito told Sakura.

Sakura just looked at her strangely.

Yugito wanted to changed the subject so she asked Sakura, "you're his ex-teammate also, so what do you think of him since Ino isn't here now also?"

"When I first met him, I can't deny that I didn't like him. I was more interested in Sasuke since he was the best ninja and most handsome boy in the class. I didn't treat Naruto like a normal person. He used to bug me a lot and would always try to get me to go on a date with him," Sakura told her with a sad voice. At this Yugito frowned, _Naruto always mentioned good things when he talked about his former teammate_.

"I wish that I could take that back, but it's a part of my past and I can't," Sakura replied in the same sad tone when she noticed Yugito's face.

"There are a lot of good qualities about him though. He's a person who keeps their promises no matter what. I think that's the best personality trait in him. He's also very caring for the few friends that he have. I know he wouldn't hesitate to give his life to any of them," Sakura continued in a more cheerful tone than before.

_Does Naruto consider me a friend or just a teammate?_ Yugito thought when Sakura mentioned that he would die for his friends.

"What about yours and his former teammate, Sasuke? Naruto doesn't like to talk about him much," Yugito asked Sakura.

"I think it Naruto doesn't talk about him much is because it was one of the mission that he has failed. Not only that, he feels like he failed to save his friend from a disaster," Sakura answered her.

"But to answer your question. Sasuke is a cocky and very prideful person. I think this was because he was the number one rookie in our class. I think that's one of the reason why he went to Orochimaru," Sakura told her.

"Why do you think that?" Yugito asking her to continue.

"Well, at first Naruto was way below Sasuke in skill level and Sasuke didn't care about him much. But, as time passed Naruto became stronger and stronger while Sasuke felt like he wasn't improving as much as Naruto. I think he somehow felt inferior to Naruto and left to get more power from Orochimaru. I know it's real stupid for Naruto to blame himself, but he felt that it was partially his fault for Sasuke's betrayal," Sakura said.

_So, Naruto felt like it was partially his fault that Sasuke went to Orochimaru. Why do you look at things in such a stupid way Naruto? Sasuke left because he wanted to, not because you made him, _Yugito thought.

Sakura continued, "I can see why Naruto wasn't as strong as Sasuke in the beginning. I mean, Naruto didn't even have a family to teach him anything while Sasuke came from an elite ninja family which taught him before he was even in the academy."

"Naruto didn't have a family? He never told me that," Yugito said to Sakura.

_Stupid Sakura, you and your big mouth. Well, you can't take that back now, _Sakura thought to herself. "Yes, Naruto never knew his family. He was raised by an orphanage until he was old enough to join the academy."

_No wonder why his house is so small, _Yugito thought.

They continued to talk until it was near sunset.

"We should rest here," Jiraiya said when they got near the border of Fire country. They set up two tents and cooked some fish that Naruto caught by the stream.

It was around 10 o'clock at night when Jiraiya said, "I'll take the first shift of look-out, Naruto will take the second shift, Yugito you take the third shift while Sakura will take the fourth. Each shift will be two hours and we'll leave at 6 o'clock sharp tomorrow. Okay get your sleep now."

At that Naruto went to one tent while the two girls went to the other.

Jiraiya was sitting on a branch near the top of the tree when he felt someone coming. It was a familiar chakra so he wasn't worried. It was about an hour and thirty minute into his shift already. "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto took a seat next to Jiraiya. "Hey, ero-sennin what's the chance of us accomplishing this mission?"

Not wanting Naruto to know that he had a lot of information on Orochimaru and Sasuke he said, "I don't know Naruto."

It wasn't that he didn't want to tell Naruto, but he remembered Tsunade told him that she had lied to Naruto about Sasuke to keep him safe. It would seem kind of weird if he knew a lot about Orochimaru and Sasuke's strength.

"I know you know. I also already knew that ba-chan knew snake-man's location before I even went back to Konoha," Naruto told his sensei.

"What makes you think that?" Jiraiya said still pretending that he didn't know.

"Many reasons. One, ba-chan mostly likely got her information on snake-man from you. Going by how easy you keep tabs on Akatsuki, it'll be pretty easy for you to also keep a tab on your old friend. Two, the reason why I didn't bug her more about it was because I knew ba-chan was just worried about my safety. I figure the two months delay was just extra time for you to figure out the locations of Akatsuki in case they were close to me. Three, you guys must have more information because she knows that I would never forgive her if something happened to Sasuke and somehow I find out she already knew the location of snake-man's hideout. So I think it would be better if we were straight with each other," Naruto said.

_When has Naruto learned how to analyze so good? Has he actually grown up, not wanting to get the answer out of Tsunade when he knew she was lying? Can't he just go back to the Naruto that didn't question such things?_ Jiraiya thought. "First, I want to if it was Kato who taught you these analyzation skills?" 

"Yes. He would let me lead sometimes during missions. Unless my command was totally dangerous or something that would put our team's life in danger, we would follow my commands without question. After the mission was over, Kato-sensei would suggest things and strategies that would have been better," Naruto said.

"Did you know I almost pounded his face the first time we did this? When we got back to his house, I thought that I did real well because he didn't correct anything while we were on the mission. But, when we reached the house he told me all the errors that I made. I got real mad at him, not because he told me my errors, but because he saw them while we were doing the mission and didn't correct it right there. This was what I actually said to him, 'You put our team in danger just so I can improve my analyzation skills?' To my surprise he just laughed and said that I was going to be a great leader. He told me that I cared for safety of the group and that's what a good leader should do. He mentioned that I should not worry because unless it puts the team in real jeopardy then it's okay. It's all part of learning."

"Another thing that he'll let me do is analyze mission reports. Some of the missions were pretty vague. He would let me analyze the mission request to see what I thought of it. Many clients know that if they reported what would really happen the mission would be a higher class so they just put in vague desciptions. They want it to be marked at a lower rank so they won't have to pay that much, kind of my first C-Class mission," Naruto told Jiraiya.

"I told him to teach you taijutsu, not analyzation skills also," Jiraiya commented while having a smile.

"Okay, I'll tell you the truth. Yes, Tsunade already knew the location of Orochimaru's hide out before you went back to Konoha. Your other assumption is also correct, the two month delay was to give me time to figure out the location of Akatsuki before Tsunade let you go and rescue Sasuke. As for the third one, Orochimaru won't be taking Sasuke's body for another three months or so," Jiraiya told him.

"Why's that? I thought he could take him already," Naruto said.

"Technically he could, but he wants Sasuke to be a more permanent vessel and for that to happen the Curse Seal has to take full effect. I think Sasuke has a couple of months before he's completely under the control of the Seal," Jiraiya answered his student.

"Back to my first question then? What are our chances of accomplishing this mission?" Naruto questioned him.

"Orochimaru and me are about the same level. Sasuke is about your level and Kabuto is about Kakashi's level, which is around your level. Yugito is also about your level so I say it can go either way, though it favors them a little bit more," Jiraiya said to him.

"It's because you know I won't try to kill Sasuke am I correct?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, because you won't use your full force to fight Sasuke this could be bad. We don't know if Sasuke will hold back when fighting you. He might, but I highly doubt it, he's been under the Curse Seal for so long," Jiraiya told him.

"Is it also because of Sakura," Naruto said more of a comment than a question.

"Yes, that also. Having Sakura on the team can go two ways. One, she'll be a big help to us because we have another person and a healer or two they can use her as bait or hostage," Jiraiya answered.

"Tsunade also told me that she's a jounin, but isn't as strong as any of the elite jounins yet, so I don't know if she has the strength to compete with them." With that Jiraiya lept down to a lower branch.

"Alright nice talking to you Naruto, but I got to get some sleep and it's your shift now," Jiraiya told him. Jiraiya proceeded down the tree and went to the tent.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

It was 5:30 and everyone was already up getting ready. Everyone was gathered around in a small group waiting for the instructions from Jiraiya.

"Okay, here's the formation. I will lead since it'll be easier for me to do give out orders when I'm in the front. Sakura you will be behind me since you're the medic of the team. We need to protect you the most. Naruto you will be behind Sakura because need to get to Sakura as fast as possible if they decide to attack her. You are stronger than Yugito and can take a hit for Sakura if needed so you need closer to her. Yugito can cover the back since she's a little faster than you, Naruto. Okay got the formation?" The team nodded.

"When we get there I will face Orochimaru while Naruto will face Sasuke and Yugito will face Kabuto. Don't worry about not looking at his eyes. To my knowledge Orochimaru hasn't taught Sasuke how to cast genjutsu through his eyes. Mainly because he doesn't know how and I don't think Sasuke had time trying to figure it out yet. Yugito even though Kabuto is a medical nin, don't let that fool you. He has many tricks up his sleeve. He uses chakra blades to cut your muscles. Sakura you try to avoid the fight as much as possible until you see one of us injured. If you're injured then we have no way of healing ourself. If worst comes to worst then you will have to join the fight also. If Tsunade was a good teacher she would have thought you a lot of dodging skills and at least some taijutsu skills," Jiraiya said this to the team. They all nodded again stating that they knew what he was saying.

"We will probably reach the base near sunset, move out," Jiraiya said.

They started heading west hoping that they wouldn't meet any enemy shinobis. Luckily for them they didn't. It was sunset and they reached Orochimaru's hideout.

The hideout didn't really look like a hideout in Naruto's opinion, it had a small opening in the ground about the size of a man.

"Hey, ero-sennin are you sure this is the place?" Naruto asked him.

"Well, it is a hideout right. He's not going to have some board stating 'Orochimaru's hideout, Welcome All.' Yes, I'm sure this is the place. I'll go first," Jiraiya said to his student.

Jiraiya crawled into the small hole and Naruto followed. It was really small, it could only fit person at a time. After he got through the hole, he found that he could completely stand up. It was almost like a cave. It was completely dark, but Naruto could feel that the roof was about eight feet high and the sides were just about 4 feet wide since he could touch the sides if he outstretched his hand. It was a real tight fit. The pathway wasn't straight either, it had a forty five degree turn about every 5 feet. Naruto guess this was to make escaping easier. After walking for about five minutes there were many directions to choose from. There were 6 directions.

"Which way now ero-sennin?" Naruto asked in a very small voice so that no one else can here.

Jiraiya pointed at the door to their left. They all proceed to follow him. They took this path for about 10 minutes and came into a very big room. This room was dark also, but had snake-like candle holders with a very small flame in them to eluminate the whole room. The room was about 50 feet across and 20 feet from top to bottom.

There heard three footsteps coming from the other side of the room. Three men appeared before them.

In the middle stood Orochimaru and to the right of him stood Kabuto. They haven't changed much in three years. They still wore the same clothes as before. Sasuke stood on Orochimaru's left side, zombie-like. He grew a little taller and wore a white long sleeve shirt which was open in the middle. He wore dark purple pant that was held up by a light purple rope which he tied to his side.

"Kukuku, if it isn't my old teammate and look, he brought Naruto-kun and two girls," Orochimaru said to Jiraiya with an evil grin on his face.

"Naruto-kun I really have to thank you and Kakashi. Without yours and Kakashi's help Sasuke would never have come to me this early. When he saw you improving and passing him he couldn't stand it how a dead-last like you could surpass him. I have to thank Kakashi for putting that seal on him. He didn't realize that the level 2 Curse Seal actually takes over his brain until I took Kakashi's seal off. After your fight with him he never tried to use the Curse Seal again, but the damage was already done. Once a person uses the level 2 Curse Seal even once it'll start taking over their body," Orochimaru said.

"Shut up snake-man. Sasuke come on, I don't want to fight you," Naruto said to Sasuke.

"He won't respond to you Naruto-kun. The Curse Seal has already affected his body too much. He only listens to me now. The only thing I can't make him do is use the Curse Seal, but it doesn't matter I can wait," Orochimaru said to Naruto.

"You know Naruto-kun, if you let me take Sasuke I can help you take care of your other problem also. I also don't want them having power you know," Orochimaru said to Naruto.

Yugito was wondering what Orochimaru was talking about.

"Like I'll believe that. Wouldn't it be easier just to come for me after taking Sasuke's body," Naruto replied back.

Orochimaru laughed, "Well well, looks like you also improved your intelligence. Where did you learn this? It couldn't have been from Jiraiya."

As Orochimaru finished his sentence he began to stick out his long tongue and wrapped it around Sasuke's body, not suffocating it, but caressing Sasuke's body. The tongue kept going around Sasuke until the end of the tongue was near Sasuke's belly button. Orochimaru then proceed to move his tongue lower and lower until it was almost in Sasuke's pants threatening to go down there. Naruto could see that Sasuke was twitching and didn't like the experience, but somehow Sasuke couldn't manage to move out of the way.

Naruto couldn't take much more and he rushed at Orochimaru.

"Naruto not yet," screamed Jiraiya, but it was already too late. Naruto had already left.

"Sasuke, Kabuto, now," Orochimaru said.

_No jutsu this chapter_


	8. Ch 8:Betting Your Life

**Chapter 8:Betting Your Life**

Kabuto quickly made his chakra blades and tried to attack Sakura. Luckily Sakura dodged out of the way just in time. Yugito then stepped in between of Kabuto and Sakura.

As Naruto ran towards them, Orochimaru quickly retracted his tongue from Sasuke and started stretch out his neck to give Naruto a bite. As he was getting closer to Naruto he felt a hard kick that sent his neck back to its regular length.

"Forget about me already old friend," Jiraiya said to him.

"Sasuke-kun you take care of your old friend while I'll take care of my old friend," Orochimaru told Sasuke. With that he started to fight with Jiraiya.

Naruto and Sasuke were looking at each other. "Come on Sasuke, snap out of it," Naruto said to him.

Sasuke didn't listen to him, he just activated his Sharingan and just did some handseals, "Saraundo Kouen (Surrounding Flame)." A big flame formed around Naruto. It was about two feet wide and reached the ceiling of the cave. It started to close in on him getting smaller and smaller.

"Gogyou Shouheki (Water Barrier)" Naruto shouted as he did some handseals. A water bubble immediately surrounded Naruto. Naruto knew this jutsu would not hold up to the flame, but it would lessen the damage. As the flame came closer and closer, Naruto could feel the heat increasing. Having no other choice Naruto jumped through the flame. His water bubble immediately vanished when it came in contact with the flame. Luckily the jutsu lessen the damage and Naruto wasn't severely burnt.

_I guess I have no choice, but to fight him, _Naruto thought to himself. Sasuke was still standing about 15 feet in front of him in his zombie-like stance.

_I can't use my "Absolute Darkness" technique. I know that me, ero-sennin, and Yugito can fight completely in the dark, but I don't know if Sakura can. I'm pretty sure Sasuke, snake-man, and glasses can fight in the dark also so I would be putting Sakura in danger._

So with his mind made up Naruto started doing handseals and said, "Kage Shazou (Shadow Images)." Four shadow images appeared right on top of Naruto. As he quickly rushed towards Sasuke, it looked like there was a trial of himself as he moved. The images surprised Sasuke and in his moment of surprise Naruto connected a right hook straight at Sasuke's stomach. This caused Sasuke so much pain that he fell to his knees holding his stomach. The punch really hurted him, more so than any punch he felt before. Naruto was standing in front of Sasuke, "Sasuke, I know somewhere you're still in there, just fight the Curse."

As he said this Sasuke tried a sweeping kick with his right leg, but Naruto jumped back 10 feet just before it was about to connected.

Naruto got into his fighting stance again. He quickly went to Sasuke's left side, attempting a left roundhouse kick to Sasuke's face. Not surprised this time Sasuke managed to dodge his attack. After Naruto recovered, he threw a right hand at Sasuke's chest which Sasuke blocked with his right forearm. Sasuke almost felt his bone break from the impact. _His attacks hurts too much to block, I should only dodge the attacks. _Sasuke saw an opening after blocking Naruto's attack so he did a straight right kick to Naruto's stomach which sent him 5 feet back. Sasuke didn't wait for Naruto to recover and rushed at him throwing a right uppercut to Naruto's chin. He did a swift left kick to the side of Naruto's right knee-cap. This caused Naruto to slightly fall to his right. Sasuke then stomped behind Naruto's knee-cap with his right leg. This caused Naruto to fall even more. He ended the barrage with a jumping right knee to Naruto's face.

Naruto fell to his hands after the knee, but knew that if he didn't hurry he would be in more pain. He avoided Sasuke's kick to the stomach by rolling forward. Naruto stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth. There were a few feet from each other now in their fighting stance waiting for the other person to strike.

_I have to attack, this jutsu drains my chakra, _Naruto thought. He crossed his fingers and said, "Kage Bunshin." Two shadow clones popped by Naruto's side. They also had four shadow images with them. The clones went to attack Sasuke, but he jumped back 20 feet from them and put his arms towards Naruto. Suddenly five snakes came from each of Sasuke's sleeve still attach to him. They immediately hit the clones and went for Naruto. He managed to dodge them by flipping to the side. Naruto could feel that they were coming from behind and did a back flip which caused the snake to miss their mark.

Sasuke retracted his snake hands. He put up his arms again and sent his snake-hands at Naruto again, this time trying to attack him from all angles. Luckily for Naruto he was used to being attack from all sides and he managed to dodge Sasuke's snake-hand attack. Naruto dispelled his shadow images now because he was on the defensive and it would be chakra consuming if he kept it on. He kept dodging Sasuke's snake-hand attack, but found that it was hard to get closer to Sasuke now. _What can I do, it's hard to get close to him now. I got it._

He grabbed one of the snakes with his left hand and pulled it as hard as he can. This caused Sasuke to fly straight forward to him. He then punched Sasuke in the nose with his right hand. The hit made sent Sasuke five feet away from him. Naruto momentary forgot about the other snakes and this made him pay. The other nine snakes wrapped themselves around Naruto. One around his throat, one around each of his arms, one around each of his legs, and the rest of the snakes binding his body together.

Sasuke got up, wiped the blood from his nose and with a grin he said, "Finally got you."

Even though Naruto was getting choked he managed in a low voice, "So you can talk." He was still squeezing the one snake that he had in his left hand. He pulled with all the strength and leverage that he had in his left hand. Naruto gave Sasuke a headbunt to his forehead when Sasuke came near. This caused Sasuke to lose his snake-hold on Naruto.

"I don't want to be saved Naruto, don't you get it. I need power," Sasuke said to him.

Naruto heard what Sasuke said, but somehow it didn't seem like Sasuke was saying it. "You're still under his Curse, Sasuke. I know you don't want to be controlled by him."

"You don't know what I want Naruto. Just leave me. I have business to take care of and you're in my way," Sasuke answered him back.

"I'll leave when I beat you up and take you back to Konoha with me," Naruto said.

Sasuke did a few handseals and said, "Kikan Konmei (Mirror Confusion)." Sasuke reached to his back and took out a kunai with his right hand. He ran towards Naruto and slashed at Naruto's neck with the kunai.

_Something's not right, _Naruto thought as he saw the kunai coming to the left side of his neck. Just as the kunai was about to hit him, to Naruto's better judgement he jumped to his left side also straight at the kunai. Just as he jumped to his left, he felt a deep cut on the right side of his neck that just missed his vein.

"Very good Naruto, you used your judgement instead of your eyes. You also remembered that I was left-handed," Sasuke said.

"Kai," Naruto said. "So, that was just for a quick kill." He held the wound on his neck.

"Yes, I told you to leave. If you don't I'll use all that I have to kill you and I won't hesitate," Sasuke told him.

"You'll have to kill me then," Naruto answered back.

He did a few handseals and yelled, "Nenshou Tsurara (Burning Icicles)." Twenty icicles appeared in front of Naruto and shot at Sasuke. It was too fast for Sasuke to dodge them all and an icicle impaled him on his right shoulder and his right thigh. Immediately Sasuke felt both a burning and freezing sensation at the same time. Sasuke dropped to one knee. He tried to take off the icicle with his left hand, but as he grabbed the icicle it burnt his hands also. He almost couldn't take his hands off the icicle. Sasuke could feel the cold spreading through his body by the second. He knew that he was going to die if he didn't take out the icicles. Sasuke focused again and this time with a hard and quick pull, he managed to rip the icicle out of his right shoulder along with some muscle tissue. He did the same with the icicle that was stuck to his right leg. Blood came out of his shoulder and his right thigh. His body still felt cold from the icicles.

"It's over Sasuke, you can't use your right hand or right leg anymore," Naruto said to him.

"NOOOOOOO," Naruto heard Sakura's voice and turned to his right. He saw Yugito pushing Sakura out of Kabuto's attack about twenty feet from them. Yugito was hit in the stomach by Kabuto's chakra knives. She fell down to the floor. He looked around and saw the Jiraiya was on the floor badly beaten about ten feet in front of Sakura and Yugito. Orochimaru was injured, but not much. He was standing five feet in front of Jiraiya. Naruto was so busy fighting with Sasuke that he forgot about his team. Just then, he saw Kabuto kick Sakura and she landed five feet from Jiraiya.

Kabuto went back to Yugito who was still on the floor, "My, my, if she wasn't here I don't know if I could have gotten you. That's why you guys are so weak, always protecting the weak." Kabuto raised up his hand and touch her upper arms and lower legs.

"Now that you can't move I can do whatever I want with you, but I think I'll just kill you quickly," Kabuto said with a smirk. He raised up his right hand again and made a strike at her chest. Just as he was about to connect Naruto appeared right in front of them covering Yugito with his body. Kabuto managed to hit Naruto in the back with his chakra knives instead of Yugito. Naruto spat out some blood as he was hit.

"Oh, Naruto-kun, you too. I didn't know you were these types of weaklings. You almost had Sasuke back there, but instead you came to the help of your teammate," Kabuto said to Naruto. He quickly cut Naruto's legs and upper arm with his chakra knives before Naruto could recover.

"Orochimaru-sama, do you want to say anything to Naruto-kun before he dies?" Kabuto said loudly so that it'll reach Orochimaru's ears. Orochimaru was almost at the point of killing Jiraiya when he heard what Kabuto said. He was holding Jiraiya's shirt when he heard Kabuto.

Orochimaru dropped Jiraiya and said, "Kukukuku, good job Kabuto, hold on don't kill him yet I want him to die by Sasuke's hands so that he'll have the Mangekyou Sharingan when I transfer into him." He slowly walked towards where Naruto was and Yugito was at.

"Well, well, Naruto-kun it looks like you failed again," Orochimaru said mockingly as he stood in front of Naruto who was still on top of Yugito still protecting and holding her tightly in his arms.

"Oh how sweet you two will die together," Orochimaru said. He looked over to his right about twenty where Sasuke was still kneeling. "Sasuke-kun come over her and kill Naruto." Sasuke slowly got up and limped slowly to where Orochimaru, Kabuto, Naruto, and Yugito were located. He stood by Orochimaru about three feet behind Kabuto.

"Why Naruto? Why did you protect me? If you didn't do that you could have save yourself and maybe even finish the mission," Yugito said to her teammate almost in tears.

This was the few times that Naruto ever saw any emotions in his teammates eyes. Naruto looked down at his teammate and struggled to say, "finishing a mission is not as important as a friend's life. I never want to see an important friend die in front me."

When he said that Sasuke twitched a little. Flashbacks raced back into his mind. The time when he protected Naruto from Haku. The time when he tried protecting Sakura from Gaara.

_What can I do to save Naruto? I can't even use Nibi. What use is chakra if I can't even move, _Yugito thought. As she was thinking this she went unconscious from the pain in her stomach.

"I see that your injured Sasuke-kun, let me heal you," Kabuto said to Sasuke. With that he healed the wound Naruto caused with his icicle. Kabuto returned to facing Naruto and Yugito.

"Enough of this. Sasuke, kill Naruto now," Orochimaru ordered Sasuke.

Sasuke started to gather chakra in his left and soon there was a loud crackling noise like a thousand birds. Lightning started radiating from his left hand.

"CHIDORI," Sasuke yelled.

He stuck the chidori right through Kabuto's back and through his heart. A small amount of Kabuto's blood fell onto Naruto. He smirked and said, "let's see you heal from that, glasses."

Sasuke's kick Kabuto's body so that he could free his left hand from Kabuto's back. Pints of blood were pouring out after Sasuke kicked Kabuto off his hand. Kabuto flopped to the floor with a loud thud.

"Well Sasuke-kun, looks like you broke out of the Curse Seal. Does the boy mean that much to you?" Orochimaru said to Sasuke.

Orochimaru was right. This was the first time in years that Sasuke felt he had control over his own body again. The whole three years was all a blur. It felt like he was in the backseat of his body watching everything happen, but not being able to do anything about it. He felt like he was reborn again.

"Sasuke," Naruto said in a weak voice.

"I'll take care of this one Naruto, you've done your part," Sasuke told him.

"Did I hear you right? Take care of me?" Orochimaru said with a laugh.

"Even though you were my most precious vessel it seems that you've broken yourself free from my Curse Seal and therefore you are no longer important to me. Looks like I have no choice, but to kill you," Orochimaru told Sasuke.

Orochimaru's snake tongue immediately came out and went straight at Naruto. As the tongue got closer it opened its mouth to reveal the Kusanagi. Sasuke grabbed the snake's neck with his right hand before the sword could stab Naruto. He pulled the sword away from the snake's mouth with his left hand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Orochimaru said to Sasuke.

"Do what, I'm going to kill you with this sword," Sasuke told Orochimaru. Just then Sasuke felt a pain in his left hand. The sword electrocuted his left hand and in his sudden reaction from the shock he threw the sword ten feet away from them.

"Told you, the only person that can wield that sword is me," Orochimaru said. As he said that jumped towards the sword. Sasuke also followed Orochimaru was a step to slow and Orochimaru got his sword back.

_I don't know if I can beat him, he knows all my moves._ He looked behind Orochimaru where Jiraiya and Sakura were located. To his surprise the frog sennin was not dead yet. Jiraiya was actually being healed by Sakura. Orochimaru completely forgot about his former teammate. _I got to keep Orochimaru busy so that he doesn't notice Jiraiya. If I can do that then maybe we have a chance at beating him. Luckily I haven't used that much chakra in my fight against Naruto. I was just injured by Naruto and thanks to Kabuto, that's gone._

Naruto struggle hard, but he felt a little movement in his arms already. His healing factor from the Kyuubi was already healing his arms and legs. He still couldn't use his legs, but he could move his hands. He looked behind his back to see where the fighting was taking place. He saw that Sasuke was barely keeping up with Orochimaru. If he didn't do something quick, Sasuke will die. Naruto then slightly turned his head to where Jiraiya was at. He could see that Sakura was busy healing Jiraiya. _I'll have to stall Orochimaru until Jiraiya gets better._

_Ok, focus Naruto, you can't miss this, _he thought to himself. Naruto did a few handseals and said, "Raikou Chuubuu (Lightning Paralysis)." A small lightning barrier barely bigger than a man immediately surrounded Orochimaru.

Orochimaru noticed what the jutsu was, "What a troublesome thing. I never thought you this move, Sasuke." He looked over to where Naruto was at. "Oh I see, it was Naruto-kun. It doesn't matter, I'll be release in about five minutes anyways. You can escape while you can Sasuke."

"I'll never leave my friends to die," Sasuke told the snake-sennin.

"Really, then his jutsu was used for nothing," Orochimaru answered with a chuckle.

"It wasn't used for escape. It was used for time," a familiar voice said behind Orochimaru's back.

"It's you Jiraiya. I forgot about you. I should have killed you back there, but I was too happy about the thought of having the Mangekyou Sharingan," he said to Jiraiya.

"That's one mistake that you will regret," Jiraiya answered him.

"I guess I'll just beat you again," Orochimaru told his former teammate.

"That's if I don't end things while you're still stuck in this barrier," Jiraiya said.

"Don't try to scare my Jiraiya. Physical attacks won't reach me. Also, chakra can't get in or out while the jutsu is still in effect. As soon as it's lifted I'll kill you," Orochimaru said with a smirk.

"Who says I was using physical attack or a chakra attack," Jiraiya said. He did a very familiar handseal sequence that Orochimaru seen before and said, "Shikifuujin (Dead Demon Imprisonment)." A white demon appeared behind Jiraiya. It had long white hair and two horns sticking out from the top of its head. It wore a long robe which completely cover its body. A sword inbetween held between its teeth.

Fear came into Orochimaru's eyes for the first time during the battle. "What are you planning on doing dead-last?"

"I'm finishing what our sensei couldn't do. I will take you this time my friend," Jiraiya said to Orochimaru.

"Where did you get that technique?" he questioned his old teammate.

"Come on, my student invented the technique. Our teacher learned it from him and you think that one of them wouldn't teach me?" Jiraiya answered him.

Orochimaru was worried for his life now. "Don't you know what that jutsu does? Don't you know that we'll both die you fool, not just me?"

"Yes, of course I know," Jiraiya told him.

Just then the Death God stabbed his hands forward. A hand appeared from Jiraiya's stomach. It went straight through the barrier unharmed.

"You can't escape now, old friend," Jiraiya told Orochimaru.

"Let me go you fool," was all the Orochimaru could say.

"What are you doing sensei? No, that wasn't the plan. Release the jutsu and we can fight him together. I'm almost healed, we can win," Naruto pleaded with Jiraiya to release the jutsu.

"No, Naruto this is the only way," he answered his student.

"NO, please don't go," Naruto yelled.

The Death God was slowly pulling away Orochimaru's soul now.

"We'll be seeing all our old friends again Shodaime, Nidaime, Sandaime, and Yondaime. Since we'll be spending an eternity together I might even write some novels for you to read," Jiraiya told Orochimaru.

"I don't care about those old geezers and especially your stupid novels. Let me GO Jiraiya," Orochimaru said in a panicked voice.

He looked over to Naruto, "I guess this is good-bye kid. So you've finally called me sensei." Jiraiya smiled when he said this. "You've grown up to be a strong shinobi and I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I have one piece of advice left to you before I leave. Live life with no regrets."

"No you can't go," Naruto yelled. Just as he said that the Death God pulled out Orochimaru's soul and with the slash of his sword the Orochimaru's soul was cut. Right before the Death God slashed Orochimaru's soul, Jiraiya had a thought, _funny how life is, even though I don't believe in superstition it's pretty ironic that team 13 should fall on the day that team 7 reunites._ With that he made a smile.

Orochimaru and Jiraiya fell down at the same time. Naruto released his jutsu and crawled with his hands over to Jiraiya because his legs weren't completely healed yet. He shook his sensei's shoulder, "Come on ero-sennin, stop playing. You can't be dead, you just can't be." He put his ears to Jiraiya's heart to listen for a heartbeat. Naruto heart sank when there wasn't a heartbeat.

Sakura came up from behind him, "Naruto we have to go, Yugito is still injured internally from her stomach and we don't know if she'll make it, we have to hurry."

"Sasuke, since you're the one with the least injuries, you take Yugito to the hospital as fast as you can. I'll carry Jiraiya," Naruto told Sasuke in a worried voice. Sasuke immediately picked up Yugito in a bridal position and went to the door that Naruto and them came from.

Sakura put Naruto's arm around her head and helped him up.

"You carry sensei Sakura. I can't leave him in a place like this. I can manage walking on my own," he told Sakura in a sad voice. He could barely stand, but knew that he can manage.

It took Sakura and Naruto four days to reach Konoha. The first day they barely got anywhere because Naruto was injured, but by the second day he was almost fully healed. It still took them a little longer because they were also carrying Jiraiya's dead body.

When they got near the gates Naruto told Sakura, "We should leave him here. I'll go tell Tsunade what happened and then we'll come back. I don't want a huge commotion because we brought Jiraiya back…" He was going to say 'dead' but, found that he couldn't it. Sakura knew this and just nodded her head.

He immediately went through the front gate and jumped onto the rooftops. He quickly hopped from house to house heading towards Hokage Tower. _What will I say to ba-chan? Sorry, but your teammate's dead, _Naruto thought. He felt a urge to faint when he thought this.

He got to Tsunade's office and opened the door. To his surprise Tsunade wasn't there. Instead it was Shizune.

"Shizune-chan, where is ba-chan?" Naruto said looking down at the floor.

"Sorry Naruto, she's not here right now. Tsunade is on a mission right now. She'll be back in two days or so. You can tell me what happened during the mission Naruto," she said to him.

"Hokage go on missions?" Naruto asked her.

"Of course they go on missions Naruto. That's why they have assistance so that they can cover for them while they're gone," she answered Naruto.

"I guess I'll wait until she returned," Naruto told Shizune. With that he left and closed the door. It wasn't that he distrusted Shizune or didn't like her. In fact Shizune was one of the shinobis that he can trust. It was just that he felt that Tsunade should be the first one to hear the news about her teammate.

He went back to Sakura and told her what happened.

"If you're not going to tell Shizune yet, we have to do something about Jiraiya-sama's body," Sakura told Naruto.

"I'll build a casket so we can house his body there for the meantime," Naruto told her. "I've also got to do something right now." He made two bunshins to build the casket while he took off to the hospital.

When he reached the hospital Sasuke was still there waiting for them. Sasuke reached Konoha two days ago. He waited there for Naruto knowing that the hospital would be one of the first place that Naruto would visit when he came back. Sasuke didn't even make his presence known when he returned. He didn't go to Hokage Tower to report or visit any of his former friends. He wanted to see Naruto first before all that happened.

"She's alright Naruto. She wasn't badly injured. The doctors said that she would be okay by tomorrow," Sasuke told him.

"What room?" was all that Naruto could say.

"Go down the hall and make a left. It's the fifth room on your right. Oh and I told her about Jiraiya-sama because she was on the mission also, so I hope you didn't mind me telling her," Sasuke replied.

Naruto nodded and quickly went to the room and saw that Yugito was up.

"Hey," she said as he went in.

"Hey," he answered back.

There was a moment of silence. Yugito really didn't know what to say to Naruto right now. She knew that he was hurting inside. Sasuke told her what happened to Jiraiya and knew that Naruto was very close to him.

Naruto broke the silence, "I just came to see if you're alright."

"I'm okay. They say that I should stay in bed for another day, but I think I'll probably leave the hospital today. What about you?" she asked.

"I'm fine, since I know you're okay I'll let you get your rest Yugito. You can go to my house whenever you feel like it," Naruto said to her. As he was leaving the room he heard Yugito's voice.

"Are you sure your okay Naruto? I'm here you know," Yugito said to him.

He paused, "I'm sure Yugito, you should get some rest now." With that he closed the door.

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_**Jutsu Descriptions:**_

**Saraundo Kouen: Surrounding Flame- **(A-rank) A very hot flame that is formed around the target. The flame can burn victim severely even if they come in contact with it for just a moment. The flame completely surrounds them and starts to get smaller and smaller until it burns them alive.

**Gogyou** **Shouheki: Water Barrier- (C-rank) A water barrier. It is used as a defensive jutsu to block off some fire attacks. It can only block mild tempature fire attacks. If the flame is too hot, the flame can still burn the user, but less damage will be received.**

**Kage Shazou: Shadow Images- (A-rank) A supplementary jutsu that Naruto created after he increased his taijutsu. Four shadown images appears exactly where the user is and performs exactly what the user does, only it does it a split second later. It looks like the user is leaves a trial of theirself when performing this move. Unlike the Kage Bunshin, when the victim gets hit the shadow also hits the victim in the exact same spot, therefore amplifying the damage to that place. The users constantly lose some chakra when this move is on. For most people it would drain them too much to be that much to be really useful. But in the case of Naruto it helps him a lot because of his taijutsu skill and his chakra capacity. Plus it works with his shadow clones. Think of it like a V-ism in SFA3.**

**Kikan Konmei: Mirror Confusion**- (B-rank) A genjutsu that causes the opponent to see you as a mirror image. For example if you throw a right hand the enemy would see you throwing a left hand and vice versa. This is merely for used only for a first attack or a quick kill because most highly skilled ninja can easily adapt to the change quite quickly or just dispel it.

**Nenshou Tsurara: Burning Icicles**- (A-rank) A ninjutsu where 15-20 icicles appears in front of the user and shoots out directly in front of him at high speeds. The icicles are a little bigger than a spoon and very sharp. The tempature of icicles are below –200 degree Celcius. They are called burning icicles because they say that it's so cold that it literally feels like the ice is burning the person when it hits them. Also the icicles are very hard to take out if they have impaled a person because of their tempature. It glues itself onto a person's internals when it impales them. A person has to literally rip the icicle off with part of their muscle and skin if they want to take off the icicle. If they don't take it off, they will die because the second effect the icicle has is that it spreads its coldness throughout the body.

**Chidori**- (A-rank) Yep, same old chidori.

**Raikou Chuubuu: Lightning Paralysis**- (B-rank) A jutsu where it completely immobilizes an opponent. Nothing physical can get in or out. Another thing is that chakra can't get in or chakra can't get out therefore, a person can't be attacked or give an attack. It is used to stall opponents and let a person catch their breath or to let a person run away. It releases the opponent after five minutes or unless the user dispels the jutsu.

**Shikifuujin: Dead Demon Imprisonment**- (S-rank) A summoning jutsu. It summons the Death God and uses it to take the soul of a person. It also kills the user. This jutsu was used by Sandaime and Yondaime. (This jutsu is in the manga)


	9. Ch 9:1, 2, 3?

Just a little note before I begin. I just read chapter 331 in the manga and YEA, Yugito was there (HOT!!!). I really hope she survives in the manga :). When I saw her in chapter 331 made me want to work on this fic even more. So today there will be a double chapter. I'm sorry if there is some grammar error because I usually recheck my grammar, but I was in a hurry so that I could get this chapter up today because of chapter 331. K, here we go, hope you're enjoy it so far.

**Chapter 9:1,2… 3?**

It was nightfall when Naruto finished Jiraiya's casket. He put his sensei in the casket when he finished it. Sakura, Sasuke, and Yugito wanted to help him, but he told them that he would finish the casket by himself. They knew not to argue with him this time so they let him finish it by himself.

It was getting late and Naruto was thinking about the times he had with Jiraiya. He took a walk where Jiraiya thought his first move, the summoning technique. He was sitting by the river when a heard a noise behind him. Naruto quickly took out his kunai and turned around.

"Naruto… help me…" Tsunade fell to the ground.

_No, no, this can't be happening, _Naruto thought to himself. He quickly made two kage bunshins.

"You," he pointed to one of his bunshin. "Go inform Shizune. You, help me take nee-chan to the hospital and hurry."

His heart was pounding. Naruto quickly went over to Tsunade and said in a worried voice, "No, nee-chan, not you too, please not you too." He put one of Tsunade's arms under his neck while the other clone did the same to her other arm. Tsunade had cuts all over herself. There was a deep gash across her chest and a deep cut across her left thigh. It was two inches deep and one could see the bone if they looked at it. There were also smaller cuts across both of her arms, legs, and stomach. Her right forearm was broken for sure. It hung at a weird angle.

_Why didn't you heal yourself? You're the best medic shinobi in the world, _Naruto thought to himself.

He reached the hospital and Shizune, Sakura, and to his surprise Yugito was there also. _Maybe Yugito was just beginning to leave when she heard the news_, Naruto thought.

"Hurry Naruto, set her on the bed," Shizune told him.

He quickly put Tsunade on the bed and they strolled her into the emergency room. Naruto waited outside with Yugito.

Sakura was by Tsunade's right side when they got into the emergency room. She was focusing her chakra to take out the poison while other medical nins healed up the big wounds. They left the small ones for now. Shizune was busy looking at the medical books.

"Alright give me some Tomoshirisou and some deer antlers," Shizune told one of the medic nins. He immediately left to fetch the supplies.

Naruto waited for four hours in the waiting room. He and Yugito didn't talk to each other at all. Yugito was sure that Naruto had a lot on his mind and didn't want to bug him.

Just then Shizune came out and wiped her forehead.

"How is she?" Naruto asked her.

"She's okay Naruto," Shizune answered.

"Can I go and see her?" Naruto questioned Shizune.

"If it was a different person I would say 'no,' but I know you wouldn't listen anyways so go ahead. She's down the hall and to the right. Just go all the way to the end," she told Naruto.

Naruto and Yugito went to the emergency room. Naruto quickly pulled up a seat and sat down next to Tsunade's bed while Yugito was waiting by the door. Tsunade didn't look good. She had bandages wrapped around her whole body covering her up. She was breathing through an oxygen mask. Naruto reached out and cupped Tsunade's left hand between both of his hands.

"Why nee-chan? Why do you go and do a stupid thing like this?" Naruto had anger in his voice.

_That was unexpected, _Yugito thought.

"First, it was sensei, now it's you. I can't take much more of this," Naruto was talking to the unconscious Tsunade in a sad voice. He started to sob now and tears dropped from his eyes. He wiped them away with the back of his hands.

"You're always protecting me, but when it comes to you, you don't even protect yourself," Naruto said to Tsunade.

_I should leave. Naruto needs time alone, _Yugito thought to herself. She quietly open the door and left.

Naruto sat by Tsunade's bedside all night, not letting her hand go.

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Shizune went to Tsunade's room the next day and to her surprise Naruto was still up by Tsunade's bedside in late afternoon. Shizune told Naruto to get some rest and that she would be alright in three days. Shizune went back to Hokage Tower. He didn't want to leave, but knew that the medical nins had to do check-up on Tsunade.

When Naruto got home Yugito wasn't there so he just went to sleep. He was tired from staying up all night.

Yugito was walking down the road when she saw Sakura.

"Hey Yugito," Sakura said to her.

"Hi Sakura," Yugito answered.

"What are you doing right now?" Sakura asked her.

"Nothing much, just walking around the town," Yugito answered.

"What do you say we go meet up with the group then?" Sakura asked her.

Yugito responded, "sure why not."

"Where's Naruto?" Sakura wondered.

"I don't know," Yugito said shrugging her shoulders.

"Are you sure it's okay, I mean Tsunade-sama is injured right now. You're a medical nin right? Shouldn't you be checking up on her?" Yugito asked Sakura.

"The life threatening part already past. It's just up to her body to recover now. I can't do anything much right now. They're just doing check-ups now and anyone can do that. Besides Shizune is personally checking up on her and she's better than me in medical treatment," Sakura told Yugito.

"Okay, then where's everybody at?" Yugito asked her.

"They're at the barbeque restaurant like always. It's dinner time, let's go meet them," Sakura said to her.

They reached the restaurant and Yugito took a seat by Lee. They joined the three tables together so that everyone could sit together. Everyone was there except Naruto and Sasuke.

"How was your mission? I saw Sasuke a few times and the council seemed pretty happy that he was back, so I guess it was a success," Kiba said to Sakura with a little unpleasant tone.

Yugito noticed this.

"Yes, it was. You sound like you didn't want him to come back Kiba," Sakura said to him.

"Why should I want him back? I'm assuming that Naruto beat Sasuke's ass for him to be back. To tell you the truth I would have killed him instead," Kiba told her without his usual cocky voice. It was a serious voice.

"You don't mean that do you Kiba?" Sakura asked him, not really knowing if he meant it.

Kiba snorted, "Think what you want of him Sakura. I have no reason to like him like you and Naruto do."

"But why?" Sakura asked Kiba.

Kiba gave her a serious look, "look, Sasuke went to Orochimaru for power. Do you even remember who Orochimaru was? Have you forgotten what he did? Let me refresh your memory just in case you forgot, he attacked our village. If he wasn't stopped by the 3rd we would all be dead Sakura. Also, it wasn't only the 3rd that died, we lost many of our shinobis that day. You should remember that and keep it in your head Sakura."

"But, it wasn't Sasuke," Ino interrupted.

Kiba looked at Ino, "don't matter. He went to Orochimaru knowing this information also. He basically said to all of us, 'I don't care what Orochimaru has done to Konoha, I will go to him for power.' That's something that I can't forgive him for Ino. Basically that's traitorous of him and selfish."

"You and Sakura might see him as a friend and all that, but all I see is a traitor who was welcomed back by the council because he has a blood-limit. Let's say it was a regular shinobi who went with Orochimaru instead of the last Sharingan user in Konoha. What do you think the council would have done?" Kiba said while looking at Ino and Sakura while already knowing the answer.

Both Sakura and Ino knew the answer to. The council would have ordered any ninja to kill that person on the spot along with Orochimaru.

"You don't know what happened to him," Sakura interjected.

"I know about his past Sakura. I know he had a hard childhood, but there are people who had worst things that happened to them and still wouldn't have done what he did," Kiba told her.

Shikamaru was thinking, _Kiba's right. Just look at Naruto, he had a worst past then Sasuke and he didn't betray the village like him._

"Then why did you go on the first mission to rescue him if you hated him so much?" Sakura asked Kiba.

"Who said I wanted to rescue him? Naruto asked me to help and that's what I did. Don't mistake my actions of helping Naruto as wanting to rescue Sasuke," Kiba said to her.

"So if Naruto didn't ask, you wouldn't have gone?" Sakura wanted to make sure.

"No that's not correct, if none of you asked to help get him back then I wouldn't have tried rescuing him or want to rescue him. But, if any of you asked I would have done it," Kiba said to her.

"Look, don't get the impression that I hate him because me, Neji, Chouji, Lee, Shikamaru, and Naruto were injured during the mission. I don't really care about that because it's expect for people get injured during missions. I don't like him because he's a traitor plain and simple," Kiba said to Sakura.

"There's one more reason why I don't like him. He tried to kill Naruto," Kiba said to her.

Everyone there knew about Naruto's Rasengan and Sasuke's Chidori clash except Yugito.

"You remember when Naruto came back right. His shirt and jacket had a large hole about the size of a fist near his heart. There was a huge hole behind him, with the exact position and size when you fold the jacket. That's something you don't do to a friend," Kiba told her.

"Yes, we know about how Sasuke almost killed Naruto with the Chidori, but you forgot to mention Naruto also said that he used the Rasengan on Sasuke," Sakura said to Kiba.

"Yea Naruto used the Rasengan, but he probably used it in self-defense trying to block another Chidori attack from Sasuke. If the move actually did connect we wouldn't be having this conversation right now," Kiba said.

"And how would you know that Kiba? Naruto told us that he was aiming to kill," Sakura asked him.

"Of course Naruto would say something like that. He's protecting Sasuke's image. You want to know how I know that Naruto used it in self-defense. Well, for one the mission was to rescue Sasuke, not kill him. Two, I read up about his Rasengan after Naruto left and it's a very powerful jutsu. Do you know the only other people that could use the jutsu? Jiraiya and the Fourth. Even though the only people who could use the Chidori is Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei, the Fourth's technique is a lot more damaging," Kiba told her.

At this Sakura remember when Sasuke and Naruto were thrown to the water container and Naruto's Rasengan left a huge hole while Sasuke's Chidori left a smaller hole. She was feeling hot when Kiba talking about Sasuke like this. Not because she was mad, but because she thought all of them would forgive Sasuke and accept him when he came back.

"Is this everyone's opinion of Sasuke?" Sakura asked the group wanting to know.

"No, only mine, but let's see what else everyone thinks, shall we?" Kiba said.

"So Neji, what do you think of Sasuke?" Kiba asked him.

"I don't feel like getting into your little discussion about Sasuke," Neji said his regular voice.

"Haha, nice one, but I know you agree with me Neji and you only went because Naruto asked you to," Kiba said grinning at Neji.

"What about you Lee?" Kiba asked.

"Even though he's a traitor it is not my nature to hate a person. I neither detest him nor like him," Lee answered the question.

"Fair enough, you Shino?" Kiba questioned the man with sunglasses.

"While I don't really care, it is a benefit for Konoha to have the Sharingan in Konoha," Shino said in an emotionless voice.

"Yea, but you would agree with me if he didn't have the Sharingan," Kiba smirked. "What about you Shikamaru?"

"It's too troublesome to answer your question Kiba," Shikamaru said in a lazy voice.

"Too troublesome? Then why did you even answer? Could have just used the same amount of words you dummy. I know you probably feel the same way I do and just don't want Sakura or Ino to bother you after this. What about you Chouji?" Kiba asked Chouji.

"I'm glad that he didn't die, but he did betray the village," Chouji said.

"So you're in between then. Sakura we already know your stance on this. What about you Ino? After hearing what I've said maybe you changed your decision or maybe not," Kiba said.

"Well, I'm glad he's back," Ino said.

"Typical, the only people so far that glad he's back is the people who were in his 'fanclub'," Kiba said putting emphasize on fanclub.

"That's not true Kiba," Ino answered with a higher voice than usual.

"Fine then, let's continue and ask the other girls what they think who weren't in his 'fanclub'," Kiba said to her.

"Alright Hinata what do you think?" Kiba asked her.

Hinata was scared to answer. She was scared ever since Kiba started asking everyone what they thought of Sasuke. On one hand he betrayed the village, but on the other he was important to Naruto. She put her two index finger together and said, "I don't know Kiba-kun."

"I shouldn't even have asked you Hinata," Kiba just shook his head. "What about you Tenten?"

"I wouldn't want someone that did what he did on my team," Tenten said.

"Finally, someone gave me a straight answer for once. Thanks Tenten. And what about you Yugito?" Kiba asked.

_What? What was she suppose to think? She didn't even know this Sasuke, _Yugito thought.

"Sorry, but I don't know him and it doesn't affect me," Yugito said.

"Yes, that's true, but you did help Naruto in saving him. You were a major factor in his retrieval and I can't leave you out. Plus I want to know what a person that doesn't know him thinks," Kiba said to her grinning.

Yugito thought for a moment, "I really don't know, but since he is the only one with a specific blood-line, I can see why the village wants him to be rescued. Even though he betrayed the village, he must have some good traits in him for Naruto to try and rescue him."

"Yea, that's what I want to know also. I want to know his good traits because from what I've seen there isn't any. You can tell me after you ask Naruto alright," Kiba said to her.

The group stopped talking about Sasuke and started to chat with each other now. Sakura was confused. Most of them really didn't care if Sasuke came back or not. After they ate Yugito and Sakura left the restaurant and were walking down the street together.

"They don't know him much," Sakura said to her.

Yugito wondered what she was talking about for a second and she remembered the groups' conversation in the restaurant, "You mean Sasuke?"

"Yes, at first I thought they would be happy that he returned, but I was wrong. It does make sense though when I think it through. Even though most of them tried to become friends with Sasuke when they were younger, Sasuke just ignore them. During his childhood, Sasuke would keep to himself and didn't care much about them or try to become friends with them. Neji barely even met him before Sasuke left. The group barely even knew him and vice versa. Why should they care for him? He didn't care for them also when he left," Sakura told her.

Yugito didn't know what to say to her so she just listened. What was she suppose to say? She also didn't know Sasuke. She just listened knowing that all Sakura need was someone to talk too. They reached a fork in the road and Sakura thanked Yugito for listening to her. Sakura took a left turn and Yugito took a right turn to Naruto's house.

It was pretty late when she reached Naruto's house. She could see that Naruto was already asleep in his sleeping bag. She quietly went to his room and went to sleep also.

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The next day Tsunade was awake when Naruto went to visit. He had a lot of questions for her and stuff to tell her, but she insisted that he wait until she was up in her office before giving her his report. If Tsunade wasn't so bedridden Naruto wouldn't have listened to her, but right now all he wanted to do was make her feel as comfortable as he can so he didn't talk about his mission yet.

"Naruto, take out Yugito or spend some time with her. I bet she's bored right now. She your guest and all you're doing here is watching me. I'll be alright," Tsunade told him.

Naruto just went home. He didn't feel like doing anything much. Jiraiya was still on his mind. Yugito didn't feel like doing much either. Sometimes she could feel the villagers stare at her when they went out together. She was pretty certain that no one in the Hidden Village of Leaf knew that she had the Nibi in her, but she still didn't like the stares that she was receiving. Sometimes it felt almost like she was back in the Hidden Village of Cloud, the only difference was that there wasn't that much stares.

Two days passed and Kakashi came to Naruto's window.

"Tsunade-sama wants to hear your mission statement now Naruto," Kakashi told him.

"Oh Kakashi-sensei, you haven't met Yugito yet have you? This is my friend from the Hidden Village of Cloud," he told Kakashi. In truth Kakashi already knew who she was from Jiraiya, but pretended he didn't know her.

"Hi, I'm Kakashi. I was Naruto's former sensei," Kakashi said to her holding his hand out for her to shake.

Not knowing what to say Yugito answered, "hi, I'm Yugito. Ummm… Naruto's teammate," and shook his hand.

Kakashi just smiled and left.

"Shall we go?" he told Yugito. They left to Hokage Tower and when they entered the room Sakura was already there. She greeted Naruto and Yugito.

"So Naruto what's your story?" Tsunade asked him while leaning on her desk with one hand. Her right arm was in a sling and she still had some bandages across her chest and leg, but she looked better now. Sakura could tell that Naruto was feeling uncomfortable with her and Yugito around. So she looked at Yugito. Yugito caught the hint and they both left the room.

When they left the room Naruto said, "Nee-chan, sensei is… is… is dead," and tears started to form. She took a couple of steps forward and hugged him, letting him lean on her chest. She let him cry for a few minutes while holding him. He pulled himself together, and released his hold of Tsunade. To his surprise she didn't seem surprise at the news.

"Wait, did you know already? Who told you, Sakura?" he asked her.

"Yes, I knew already Naruto and it wasn't Sakura that told me. I'll explain it," she told him.

----------------------------------------------------

Flashback

There was a knock on Tsunade's door.

"Come in," she said.

"Hello Tsunade," Jiraiya said.

"So it's finally time. You're going to settle this dispute with our old friend for the last time?" Tsunade asked him.

"Yes," Jiraiya answered. "I think this is the last time I'll see you also Tsunade."

Tsunade looked surprised, "What do you mean? Are you saying you're going to lose already?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying. It doesn't matter if we succeed or if we don't. Either way, this will be the last time I get to see you."

"I've been doing some research on Orochimaru's immortality jutsu and how it works. Basically even Orochimaru was killed, he would not die. Only his host's soul dies while Orochimaru's soul would wonder around until it finds another host. Which means that the only way he can truly be killed is," Jiraiya was interrupted by Tsunade.

"Shikifuuji."

"Yes, precisely. So either way he kills me or I kill him and me," Jiraiya told her.

"Is there no other way?" Tsunade asked pleadingly.

"Trust me, if there was I wouldn't use this technique," Jiraiya told her.

Water was in Tsunade's eyes, but it didn't fall. She just wiped her eyes.

"Please don't cry now, Tsunade. It's not like you," Jiraiya said in a happy voice trying to lighten her up.

"Why? Why did team 13 have to end up like this? Orochimaru, I will never forgive you," Tsunade said in a low voice.

He pulled her closer to him and into his arms. "When I go, I don't want a huge funeral alright. I just want my close friends like you, Shizune, Kakashi, Naruto and his gang, and also Yugito. I don't think you've met her, but I know Kato would appreciate it if she came to my funeral. I already told Kakashi this information and asked him to follow Akatsuki after I'm gone."

"Alright," she said. "Anyways let's get the mission started then. I'll tell Shizune to get Naruto and his partner."

End Flashback

--------------------------------------------------------

_That's why her eyes were red when we were given the mission. It wasn't because of sake. It was because she already knew, _Naruto thought.

"We'll be having his funeral tomorrow. Go on with your report," Tsunade told him.

"Well, we killed snake-man and glasses. We got Sasuke back as you probably already know," Naruto said. Even though the mission was successful Naruto felt empty. Naruto haven't spoken with Sasuke after the he saw him in the hospital. He didn't feel like speaking with Sasuke anytime soon.

"I've got a couple of questions for you nee-chan," Naruto said.

Tsunade was getting used to Naruto calling her nee-chan now. It was a big improvement from what he used to call her.

"Yes, what is it Naruto?" she asked.

"Why didn't you heal yourself when you were injured? You're the best medical nin that I know," Naruto asked her.

"Well, that's easy Naruto. I didn't heal myself because I was poisoned. When a person gets poison, it is harder to extract the poison when the wound is healed. I needed to get the poison out first before I could heal myself. Another reason is that you shouldn't always use healing jutsus when you're injured. The fast healing can shorten your life-span," Tsunade answered him.

"Okay, my next question is where did you go?" he asked her.

"As I told you Kakashi is keeping track of Akatsuki now. He mentioned that there were two members that were going after Gaara and he informed me. I had to go and stop them," Tsunade told him.

"They went after Gaara?" he asked worried for his friend.

"Yes, unfortunately they got him. I couldn't stop them from getting him. I was fighting one while the other one left. While I did defeated one of them, I couldn't retrieve Gaara because I received too much injury during that fight," she told him.

_There were only two left now, _Naruto thought.

"Why? Why didn't you bring someone strong with you like Kakashi-sensei or Gai-sensei? Why are you always protecting me, but when it comes to you, you don't even protect yourself?" Naruto said. Tsunade could sense the anger coming from him when he asked this question.

"I can't Naruto. I'm the Hokage and when I'm gone the Hidden Village of Leaf defense drops tremendously. I can't be thinking of my protection when the village is in danger. The village needs all the strong shinobis that we have when I'm gone," she told him.

Naruto was angry now, "Then why do you have ANBU watching me so closely? You think I can't sense them watching me. I sense their presence everytime I go somewhere and I could easily shake them loose if I wanted. Why are you wasting shinobis on me then, I can take care of myself?"

"You're different Naruto. You know that Akatsuki is after you and if they ever get their hands on you, not only the Hidden Village of Leaf is doom, but the whole world," Tsunade told him trying to make him calm down a little.

Naruto crossed his arms together showing that he did not like her reasoning. Deep down though he knew she was right. Still, that didn't mean that he had to like it.

"Which Akatsuki did you kill then?" Naruto asked her changing the subject.

"I killed Sasori," Tsunade responded.

Naruto gasp, Jiraiya had told him about Sasori. Even though all the Akatsuki members were strong, Sasori was one of the stronger Akatsuki members. No wonder why Tsunade received so many injuries.

"Well, I think that's it. I'll tell Sakura and your friend Yugito about Jiraiya's funeral," Tsunade told Naruto.


	10. Ch 10:I Want to be Like You

**Chapter 10:I Want to be like You**

The next day came and it was Jiraiya's funeral. There were only a few people at the funeral: Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi, the rookie 9, team Gai, and Yugito. They each placed a flower on Jiraiya's casket. Naruto didn't shed a tear. He shed enough already and there was no more.

After the funeral everyone left except for team 7 and Yugito. Sasuke came up to Naruto, Sakura, and Yugito. The funeral lasted until 5:30.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said.

One of the reasons why Naruto didn't speak to Sasuke was because he felt that Sasuke was one of the reasons why Jiraiya died. Even after he found out that Jiraiya's plan all along was to seal Orochimaru, he still couldn't forgive Sasuke for going to Orochimaru for power. It was childish and he knew it, but he had to blame someone and Sasuke was it. Naruto also blamed himself because he felt that if he was stronger than maybe, just maybe, Jiraiya wouldn't had to die. He knew this was also childish, but that was how he felt.

"It's okay Sasuke, it wasn't your fault," Naruto answered him. Now that Sasuke officially apologized Naruto felt that he could start forgiving Sasuke.

"No, if I didn't go to Orochimaru, none of this would have happened," Sasuke replied.

"No, Jiraiya would have done it sooner or later, I know it," Naruto answered him.

"I also wanted to say thank all of you for saving my life," Sasuke told the whole group.

"You're welcome, I don't know you, but I was just here because my teammate asked me," Yugito said to him.

Sakura and Naruto just nodded at Sasuke.

With that they began walking to their own house.

_I will try and protect the people that I care for like I used to, Naruto. That's a promise and I truly am sorry. Yugito even though I don't know you, thank you, without you there things could have been very different. I'm in your debt. Sakura, you probably have all this mixed feelings right now, but it's ok I will make it up to you, _Sasuke thought to himself as he left towards the Uchiha compounds.

It took Naruto and Yugito 30 minutes of walking to reach Naruto's house.

Naruto was cooking for Yugito and himself. All that he could think of was Jiraiya's last words: _Live life with no regrets._ These words kept on playing through Naruto's mind over and over while he was cooking. Naruto set her plate down and sat down across from her.

Naruto looked at Yugito and wondered what she was thinking. This whole time she didn't even cry or shed a tear. She was truly a ninja, Naruto thought. It wasn't just this time, it was all the time that he went on missions with her. Kato showed emotions when things went wrong. Kato also showed when he was happy, but Yugito on the other hand, hardly showed anything. Naruto hate to admit it, but sometimes he felt inferior to her, not in skills, but in what a true shinobi should be. He felt that she was a perfect example. No emotions, a person who gets the job done, very efficient. Unlike Sasuke, even though she had all these attributes she never put down Naruto even once. This made Naruto glad, but in honesty it also made him mad. It showed him that she was above all that. Sometimes Naruto wished that he could be more like her.

Yugito was wondering what Naruto was thinking. She was thinking of Naruto. He did it again. Everytime that it seems like all hope is lost he somehow managed to pull through. Not only did he save his friend from a sennin, but he also saved her life. Even though they were pretty even in sparring matches and training, she always felt that Naruto was better on missions than her. He was a leader and somehow he could lift the spirit of the group with his words. Naruto could change people with his words, something she felt she could never do. Sometimes, she wished she could do that also. Sometimes Yugito wished that she could be more like him.

Naruto had to know what she thought of him so he broke her thoughts by asking her, "hey Yugito, you probably think I'm pretty weak huh?"

"What do you mean? You saved my life Naruto and your friends life," Yugito answered him.

_There she goes again, not putting down a person_, Naruto thought. "I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about my mental weakness, how I showed so much emotion when sensei was killed. How I showed so much emotion when nee-chan was injured."

"No, I don't think that," Yugito said immediately after he finished.

Naruto looked deep in her eyes to see if there was any sign of lying. To his surprise, he didn't see any. She really did think that.

"I think it's good that you have people you care for Naruto. Even though I didn't show that much emotion, it was because I did not know them as well as you did Naruto. You're not weak Naruto, you saved a friend from a sennin. You saved my life," Yugito reminded him again.

"Yugito," Naruto said.

"Yes," she replied.

"Thank you," Naruto told her.

They continue to eat in silence each in their own thoughts. Naruto's thought went back to Jiraiya's last words: _Live life with no regrets._ Was Jiraiya saying what Naruto thought he was saying?

They finished eating and Yugito convinced Naruto that she would do the dishes. It was getting late and they had nothing to do. Yugito left for Naruto's room. When she was three feet from the bedroom room she heard Naruto's voice. He was still sitting on the chair in the kitchen.

"Hey Yugito, you're going to the day after tomorrow right?" Naruto asked her.

"Yes, I got to get back to my village. Why? What is it?" she asked him.

"Nothing just wondering when you were going back. I guess I won't be seeing you for a long time after this then," Naruto said more to himself than her.

"I guess not," she answered more to herself than him in a low voice.

Naruto's heart was thumping so loud he wondered if she could hear it. _It's now or never Naruto. Live life with no regrets. You know you're going to regret this if you don't do it now._

He got up from his chair, "Yugito can you come here for a second?"

It was a weird request, Yugito thought, but she went over and stood in front of him a few feet back, "Yeah, what is it Naruto?"

Naruto was sure that she could hear his heartbeat now not to mention she probably felt it now. _Live life with no regrets. _He looked straight into her eyes, "I just wanted to say that I… I…"

"You what, Naruto?" she asked.

"Well, I just wanted to say that I really like… you… There I said it," Naruto told her. He saw her emotionless face turned into a sad one when he finished his sentence. Naruto immediately regretted telling her because now he made her sad.

"I'm so sorry. I know that you and Kato are you know, together, but I couldn't let you leave without telling you," Naruto told her.

"What do you mean Naruto? Kato is my brother," she told him.

The news hit Naruto harder than a ton of bricks. Even though they never showed any signs that they were in a relationship, Naruto thought that this was how shinobis acted in a relationship. He thought back to the times that made him concluded that they were in a relationship instead of brothers and sister.

"What? I always thought that he and you were together. Then why do you always call him sensei and never brother? Why do you guys sleep in the same room? I don't have a family, but if there was an extra room I thought that you would be sleeping in there if you guys were brother and sister." He thought back to his other reason, "Why didn't he give you a blood transfusion when you were almost dead?"

"To answer your first question, the reason I always called him sensei instead of brother was because that's how I was raised and it's a habit. It's a habit for him, calling me Yugito also. He also asks me the same question all the time, but I really don't know why," Yugito said.

"The truth is Naruto, I really like you too," Yugito said with water in her eyes.

_Did I just hear her correctly? _Naruto's heart filled with joy when he heard this, but as soon as he looked at Yugito he could see that she was still bother by something. "Then what's the problem?"

She was looking down at the floor because she couldn't look at Naruto in the eyes. "You might not like me after you find out what I really am. I don't think I can handle that kind of rejection after I've known you for so long. That's why I never came out and told you. I figure it was better to have you has a friend than not having you at all. But, if we were to get together then you would have to know what I am."

Naruto did not understand where she was coming from, "You're Yugito, you're my teammate. I would never reject a person like that. So what's the problem? You should know me by now."

"I have a demon in me," Yugito said in a very low voice that Naruto couldn't hear.

"Sorry, I didn't get you Yugito, your voice was too low," Naruto told her.

She looked up and straight into his eyes. Tears were in her eyes now, "I have a… demon in me Naruto," she said a little bit louder so that Naruto could hear. She changed her pupils from normal to slit for just a brief second when she said 'demon.'

After that she covered her eyes with her hands and began to sob.

This news shocked Naruto even more than the previous news. The shock made him stand there for a few seconds. He couldn't find anything to say. He took a step forward and removed her hands from her face. He proceed to lift her face with his forefinger by her chin so that she was looking at his eyes again. She was still sobbing. _Such beautiful eyes should never have tears in them, _Naruto thought to himself. He closed his eyes and moved his lips closer to hers. She closed her eyes and moved her lips closer to his. Their lips touched and they kissed each other for 5 seconds, but for each of them it felt like an eternity.

"No, I'm sorry Naruto I can't do this," Yugito said to him and removed her lips from his. She ran into Naruto's room.

She changed into her sleeping clothes and threw herself stomach first on Naruto's bed. Yugito had her arms under the pillow and held the pillow tightly to her face. She was thinking about what just happened. Naruto had just found out she was a jinchuruki. He didn't even seem scared of her or afraid when he found out. Instead he kissed her. She was glad that he still accepted her finding out that she held a Bijuu, but was worried for him now. Yugito thought about Akatsuki. Knowing Naruto, she knew he would risk his life to save hers now especially after finding out that she liked him also. How she wished she could have changed what she just did. _Maybe if she just pretended like she didn't like him then he wouldn't risk his life when Akatsuki finally came for her_, she thought to herself.

But, then she thought about it some more. He would probably do the same thing even if he knew that she didn't like him. Naruto was always there for his friends so maybe in the end he would have still helped her when she captured. Maybe it wasn't so bad.

She lay on the bed trying to force herself to sleep.

Naruto was still standing in the kitchen thinking of what he just learned. He was so shocked to find out that the other jinchuruki was his partner that he forgot to tell her that he was one himself. _Stupid Naruto, I'll tell her tomorrow so she won't feel so alone._

It was already late so he decided was time for bed. He changed into his pajamas and went inside his sleeping bag. He began to think things through. _So, they were brothers and sisters. She still didn't answer my other two questions. I'm pretty sure they have to do with the Bijuu in her, but now I want to know. The third one is probably because demon blood and normal blood can't mix together, but what's the answer to the second question?_

It was about an hour later and Naruto was still awake. He couldn't make himself sleep, now that he has learned about the other jinchuruki. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask her now. Just then he heard the door open from his room. He saw lights coming from his bedroom. Yugito came out of his bedroom with a pillow and a blanket.

"Naruto, are you awake?" she said in a low voice, not wanting to disturb him if he was asleep.

"Yes, I'm awake Yugito. What is it?" He answered her in a normal volume so it would indicate that she didn't wake him up.

She came out of the doorway and Naruto saw the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen in his life. She was wearing a red see-through lingerie robe that was button near her chest. It was button in such a way that it revealed her stomach. Her panties were a little bit darker and wasn't a see-through. Naruto could tell that she was sort of embarrassed by the way she was standing, but he didn't mention anything.

"Is it okay if I sleep with you tonight?" Yugito asked him.

"Uh…sure, Yugito," he answered not knowing what to say. Naruto unzipped the sleeping bag so that it would fit two people. _Now I don't anything to cover my body with_.

She quietly walked over to where he was lying down and set her pillow next to his and pulled her blanket over herself. Naruto was lying on his back now. She was on his left side while the wall was on his right side. Yugito was sleeping on her left side and her face was turned away from his. Naruto was thinking. _What do I do, they don't teach these kind of things in ninja class. They really should teach these things._

Just then he felt Yugito's right hand come across his body and it grabbed his right wrist. He let her guide his arm with hers. She pulled his arms towards her body with her right hand and made it so that it would gently wrap around her stomach. Yugito rest her right arm on top of his right upper arm. She then interlocked their fingers together using her left hand and his right hand. Naruto was sort of slightly on his left side also now. He repositioned himself so that he was looking at the back of her head. She threw the blanket back so that it was covering them both.

"I never told you why I slept in the same room as my brother," Yugito said to Naruto.

He just let her continued.

"It's so that he can wake me up. If I manage to finish my any of my nightmares, Nibi, my… demon, eats a little bit of my memory away. Kato is there to wake me up so that I won't lose my memory," she told Naruto.

"Can you wake me up if you see me struggling in my sleep Naruto?" she asked already knowing the answer.

"Yes, of course, I promise that I'll wake you up whenever I can," Naruto said to her.

Yugito continued, "as for your other question, I always thought that it was Kato or the hospital's supplies who donated the blood. I guess I'll never who's blood they used then."

"I know who it was. It was me," Naruto told her.

"You? Why didn't you ever tell me then?" Yugito asked Naruto.

"Because I also have a demon in me. I thought that if you found out you would freak out because you were given demon blood. I'm sorry I didn't mention that earlier, but I was just so shocked that you also had a Bijuu inside of you and didn't get the chance to tell you," he told her.

She immediately turned around to look at Naruto in the eyes when she heard what he had just said. She looked in his eyes to see if he was lying or not. It was dark, but it wasn't completely black and she could see okay in the dark because of her 'problem.' She couldn't see anything that suggested he was lying.

Naruto continued, "I don't want you to feel alone anymore Yugito. I also don't want to be alone anymore. Even though I have a few friends most of them don't know I have a demon in me. You're the first person that I told. Only Shikamaru and Sakura knows about my problem. They found out on their own. Sasuke might have found out from snake-man, but other than that the people in my generation don't know yet."

"Which one do you hold Naruto?" she asked him.

"The Kyuubi," Naruto responded.

"How come you've never used him before?" she asked now interested.

"Same reason why you haven't. I don't want to be advertising my pal here. Also, I promised myself that I would use it only in under one condition," Naruto told her.

"Well, you almost died during our fight with Orochimaru, why not then?" Yugito asked him. She knew why she didn't use her Bijuu, but she read up on the Kyuubi and knew it had healing properties.

"You're assuming that I'll use it to save my life when that's not true. The promise is something that's worth more than my life. Also, we weren't completely losing," Naruto said to her.

_Something that was more important than his life, _she thought to herself. She put that thought out of her mind and proceed with her question, "Jiraiya was out, Sakura was out, I was out, and you couldn't move. How worst can it get Naruto?"

Naruto said one word, "Sasuke."

_Sasuke? He was on the other team at that time._ She said to him, "You don't mean what I think you do? You're telling me that you had faith that Sasuke would break Orochimaru's Curse Seal and switch sides while we were almost killed?"

"Yes," he answered her immediately.

_Unbelievable, _she thought. _He put his life on the line because he believed that his friend would be able to break out of the Curse. _That was another thing that she liked about Naruto. He had so much faith in his friends when it came down to it.

"It wasn't only that Yugito. I saw it in his eyes. He was fighting it and when he saw me protect you, I think that broke the Seal," Naruto said to her.

She also remembered when Sasuke twitched as Naruto said the words, 'I never want to see an important friend die in front me.'

"Don't get me wrong Yugito, if I didn't see it in his eyes I wouldn't have hesitated to use Kyuubi at that time. Another reason for not using it after Sasuke was fighting with Orochimaru was because I saw Sakura healing sensei," Naruto told her.

"I would only use Kyuubi for last resort. The main reason is because I can't control the Kyuubi very well when I use it. Sensei was training me on using the tails and I can only control up to seven tails. Even though I can usually control seven tails, sometimes I even lose control if I let one tail out. This usually happens only happens if I'm at my limit. It's pretty rare for me to lose control with one tail, but it does happen. At the eighth tail it's usually Kyuubi doing the thinking. I might even be a danger to the important people that I'm trying to protect. I've never released all the nine tails before so I don't know how that's like. That's why I would only use it as last resort," he said to her.

"I didn't train with Kyuubi during my stay with you guys because like I said, I didn't want to advertise him. I rarely do it when I'm here in Konoha because the people here remember his chakra too well. I don't think they like sensing his chakra flowing around," Naruto told her.

Unlike her, Naruto didn't receive any special training. Yugito remembered when she was talking with Sakura and she said that Naruto didn't learn anything before going to the academy. It was probably hard to control the Bijuu for him. Plus the Kyuubi was stronger than her Bijuu. She knew that from reading.

"So the first time that I've met you, it was Akatsuki was it not?" Naruto asked her.

She didn't answer for a few seconds, "Yes, it was," she finally said.

"I wished I would have told you earlier about my feelings. Now there are only me and you left," Naruto said to her.

"I thought there was another person?" Yugito asked him. Kato always updated her when he heard news about jinchurukis. He never told her their names, but always told her how many was left. She also never knew where it came from, but always assumed the information was true.

"Not anymore, that's where nee-chan went. She tried to save Gaara, but failed. They got him while we were rescuing Sasuke," he said to her.

"Like I said, if only I would have told you earlier, then maybe we would have more time to spend together," Naruto said in a sad voice.

"Don't talk like that Naruto, it's not suiting you. You talk like we're going to die," Yugito said to him. _It wasn't like Naruto to talk about his death_, she thought.

Naruto knew their chance for survival was slim. He really did wish that he could have told her earlier then maybe they would have an extra year or two before Akatsuki came. It doesn't matter now, the past was the past. In the end at least he knew that she also cared for him.

They looked at each other eyes intensely. Now that everything was out in the open they could see if they still wanted to take their relationship further. They continued to look at each other and came closer to each other.

Yugito broke the silence, "I'm glad I'm not alone Naruto."

"Me too Yugito," he answered her.

"Guess you did get to see what I bought," Yugito said trying to lighten the mood.

"So that's what you bought. No wonder why you didn't want me to see it," Naruto answered her.

He pulled her close to him so that her head was near his chest. Naruto wrapped his arms around her stomach again gently while she gently wrapped her arms around his neck. _So this is what loves feels like. What a wonderful feeling, _they both thought to themselves as they fell asleep. They held each other in that position throughout the night. They both each made a silent vow to themselves that night. They vowed that they would help the other person in anyway that they could no matter what.

---------------------------------------------

Naruto and Yugito got up early the next morning and got dress. Instead of cooking, they wanted to see if any of their friends were at the restaurant.

They were holding hands while walking to the restaurant when Yugito asked, "You know, you haven't told me a lot about your friend Sasuke. I heard some interesting things about him from some of your friends."

"Interesting?" Naruto said to her, raising one of his eyebrows.

"Well, let's just say he wasn't what I expected," she replied.

Naruto smiled, "It was probably Kiba who said all these bad things about Sasuke. Am I right?"

"Yes, it was mostly Kiba, but I could sense that most of the group didn't really care for him," Yugito answered him. She then told him what she learned.

"Kiba see things in black and white. He doesn't any grey at all. While the things he says were true, Sasuke does have some good qualities in him although he doesn't like to show it much," Naruto answered her.

"I would like to know," Yugito said to him.

"I guess I'll start with his past. Did they tell you about his past?" Naruto asked her.

"No, but they did mention it," Yugito said.

"I shouldn't be telling you because it's not my place, but it does kind of involve you so I guess I can tell," Naruto told her.

_How can Sasuke's past involve her? _She thought to herself.

"Sasuke's whole clan was killed by his brother while he was a little boy. His mother and father were killed right in front of his eyes by his brother," Naruto said to her. She gasped. Even though this was bad, she also had a difficult past. While she agreed that hers wasn't as bad as Sasuke, she remembered when Sakura mentioned that Naruto grew up without any family. Combine with a demon that was cage inside of him, Naruto probably had the worst past.

"But, I'm sure you had a difficult past because of your 'problem.' I know I did when I was younger," Yugito said.

"It's a little bit different. I was hated by almost everyone in the village. I did hate the villagers, but there wasn't a specific person to hate. I hated everyone. Sasuke has only one person that he hated so he left to get power so that he could one day kill his brother. I didn't have a target like him," Naruto said.

"The reason I said it was tied to you because his brother is Itachi," Naruto told her.

Her eyes opened when she heard this. She already heard of Itachi from her brother. Kato didn't tell her much, but he said that Itachi was a very strong shinobi. Yugito didn't really know how strong though.

"I heard that he was a very strong shinobi. I mean, of course he strong because he's in Akatsuki, but just how strong is he? Do you know?" Yugito asked Naruto.

"I just hear some of these things from Jiraiya, but I'm sure Itachi one of the top Akatsuki members. Even though he doesn't have a big name like the sennins, he is very strong. Did you know that Orochimaru used to be in Akatsuki also? Well, Jiraiya told me that Orochimaru left because of Itachi. So, that just goes to show you how strong he is," Naruto told her.

_A sennin left the organization because of him, _Yugito thought. _This did not look good._

"That was Sasuke's past. To answer your question, Sasuke isn't all bad. I remember when he risked his life to save mine during our first mission. He was also willing to give his life to save mine and Sakura's life when we were fighting Gaara. But, those are just stuff that he did. What really made him my friend was that he was one of the first people to recognize me," Naruto told her.

_One of the first person to recognize him. No wonder why Naruto cared for him so much, _Yugito thought to herself.

Tsuande was looking out her window when she saw Naruto and Yugito holding hands and walking together. She just smiled to herself.


	11. Ch 11:Escort Services

Hey people, hope you're enjoying the chapters so far. Thanks for all the reviews so far. I do reply back :). Oh, thanks to Nigh7 and someone (it was anonymous) for correcting me on using Nee instead of Nii for Tsunade. I feel like such a douche. Ok, on with the story.

**Chapter 11:Escort Services**

Naruto and Yugito reached the restaurant and saw that Ino, Hinata, Chouji, Lee, and Sasuke were already there.

"Hey guys," Naruto said to the group when he walked in.

Ino was the first to answer, she didn't even greet them or wait for them to sit down before she asked, "Ohh, are you guys together now?"

Yugito just gave her an embarrassing smile. Naruto on the other hand gave Ino one of his biggest grin and said happily, "Yeah Ino, we are."

When Hinata heard this, her heart sank and she almost fainted. _Naruto has a girlfriend now. Maybe if I only had more courage I could have been with him. I just wished that I did something sooner, _Hinata thought.

"How did it happen? You got to tell me everything Yugito because I know Naruto won't be giving me much details," Ino said to Yugito.

Naruto and Yugito took a seat by Lee.

"And why should she give you the details?" Naruto asked Ino when he sat down.

She just gave him a look, "Because we're girls and girls have to stick together."

Naruto just rolled his eyes.

"I saw that Naruto," Ino said to him.

"I wasn't exactly trying to hide it," Naruto replied.

"Naruto, I think that Yugito is a beautiful flower and you two make a great couple. You both act so different and yet are very similar. You're the loud and emotional one while she's the calm and collected one. You guys are like different pieces that make a perfect fit," Lee said to him.

"Well, thank you for calling me emotional," Naruto said to Lee.

"I didn't mean it like that Naruto," Lee replied.

Yugito just laughed when Lee told Naruto he was emotional.

_Lee always says some weird stuff_, Naruto thought. _But, somehow he makes it seem correct._

"So what's everyone doing here this early in the morning?" Naruto asked the group.

"I'm always here in the morning," Ino said to him.

"Aren't you on some diet or something? Why are you here?" Naruto asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, but just because I'm on a diet doesn't mean I'm starving myself. I eat to be healthy, ok Naruto. More healthy than you that's for certain. I eat five small meals a day to keep my metabolism high. I'm not like Sakura trying to starve myself to death," Ino replied.

Naruto could see that Ino had some firmness in her, not as firm as Yugito, but he could tell that Ino exercised a lot. Sakura was different from Ino, she was skinny without as much shape as Ino.

"I'm always here also. A good breakfast is needed for my training. Without proper fuel, I can't train as hard," Lee said to Naruto.

"Breakfast is another meal for me," Chouji said smiling.

"I'm usually not here, but I decided I would come today," Hinata said quietly. Naruto noticed something was wrong with her.

"Is something wrong Hinata?" he asked her.

"Oh no, nothing's wrong Naruto-kun," she answered. Naruto was sure there was something wrong, but decided that if Hinata didn't want to tell him then she didn't have to.

There was a silence for a moment.

"Well Sasuke, you going to get in the conversation or are you going to be the same Mr. Cool Guy who never talks?" Naruto said to him. He was trying to get Sasuke more involve with the group now that he has returned.

Sasuke gave his cocking grin, "the reason I'm here is the same reason as Lee."

"So I never heard what happened to you. Did they give you a punishment or something?" Naruto asked him. He really didn't want to bring up the memories of Sasuke betrayal, but he wanted to know if they did punish Sasuke.

"Yea, they gave me a punishment. I won't be able to participate in the Chuunin Exam for another five years. Plus, I can't even go outside the village for two years so I'm stuck doing D-rank missions till then. I guess I can live with that," Sasuke said to him.

Naruto laughed hard at this, "You're going to give Manabu Akamon a run for his money then, hahaha."

"Shut up Naruto. Last I heard you were still a genin also. Unlike me you don't have anything stopping you," Sasuke said to him.

"I'll take it after I take care after I take care of some stuff," Naruto said to Sasuke. Sasuke knew what Naruto was talking about. He remembered Itachi coming after Naruto. Orochimaru also told him about Akatsuki when he was still with him.

"So why are you here then Naruto?" Sasuke said to him.

"I just wanted to see if you guys were here," Naruto told the group. He was interrupted by Ino.

"And so you can tell us that you and Yugito are together," Ino said grinning.

Naruto wrapped both his arms around Yugito and pulled her very close to him. "Yes, that's part of it. When I'm happy I want my friends to know. Plus I wanted to see you guys. I might be leaving tomorrow so I don't know when I'll see you guys again."

Yugito was confused, "You're going with me?"

"Of course, didn't you remembered that I promised Kato I would escort you back," Naruto answered her. She was happy when she heard that he was taking her back.

"Ohh, in the woods, you two alone," Ino commented, giving Naruto and Yugito an evil grin.

Yugito gave a slight blush.

"This is an escort mission Ino. I don't think nee-chan would let me go by myself alright," Naruto told her.

"Ino, is that all you think about?" Chouji asked her.

"What did you say Chouji?" Ino said in a loud voice. Chouji knew that he just asked the wrong question.

After that they ordered their food.

Naruto knew that it would take some time before the food arrived so he said to Yugito, "Want to come with me to nee-chan's office? I got to tell her about escorting you back."

Yugito nodded.

Ino interrupted, "wait, I'm coming too."

Naruto gave her a confused look, "Why?"

"To get Sakura to join us, duh. I can't be talking about you guys with only them. I won't be able to strike up an intelligent conversation about you guys with them," Ino said to Naruto.

"In… tell… i…gent…" Naruto said very slowly.

Naruto received a smack in back of his head by Ino for saying that.

When they got to the Hokage building Ino left them to find Sakura while Naruto and Yugito went to Tsunade's office.

Naruto knocked on the Tsunade's door.

"Come in," Tsunade answered.

When Naruto walked in he saw that Shizune was with Tsunade who was sitting on her chair.

"What is it Naruto?" Tsunade asked him.

"Yugito is going back tomorrow and I don't want her going back alone, so I was wondering if I can take her back to her village?" Naruto asked Tsunade.

Naruto knew that Tsunade would give her some escort because of her 'problem,' but Naruto wanted to be the one.

"Sure Naruto. On one condition, you must take one person with you," Tsunade told him.

When he heard that he was jumping with joy from his insides. He was sure that Tsunade would have sent a whole ANBU team with them also. Before he thought nothing could get better, Tsunade added, "Be back here in two month."

He was even happier when he heard this. Fearing that she might change her mind Naruto quickly thanked her, grabbed Yugito's hand and left.

"Uhhh Tsunade-sama if I may?" Shizune asked her as Naruto closed the door.

"Yes, Shizune what is it?" Tsunade asked her.

"What were you thinking? I mean, two jinchuruki with only one other person with them? There's Akatsuki running around, shouldn't we have a group of ANBU's with them at the least? And you know that it only takes two weeks to get to the Hidden Village of Cloud," Shizune said to her sensei.

Tsunade got up from her chair and looked out the window where she saw Naruto running a little ahead of Yugito while holding her hand. _He's going to make her fall if he runs too fast, _Tsunade thought to herself. She could see how happy he was from her news.

"They're in love Shizune. I'm pretty sure Akatsuki will be coming for one of them very soon. Plus I don't think Akatsuki would attack two jinchurukis at the same time. I want them to be able to spend as much time as possible together. They would rather live a month together than live a lifetime by themselves," Tsunade said to Shizune.

"They might not attack both at the same time, but Naruto's coming back with only one person," Shizune said to Tsunade, seeing the hole in her reasoning.

"Did you see the look on his face? He wasn't even thinking about how dangerous it was going to be for him. I haven't seen Naruto this happy in a long time Shizune. It makes me happy. Besides I have faith in him," Tsunade said.

Shizune understood.

Naruto and Yugito went back to the restaurant. When they got there, the waitress was barely serving their food. Sakura was also there with the group now sitting by Ino.

"So, it's true," Sakura said as they came in.

Yugito and Naruto took a seat by Sasuke.

"You know Ino, I would have told Sakura. It's not like I'm trying to hide it," Naruto said to her.

"I know. I just wanted to be the one telling everyone though," Ino said.

_Do girls actually like this stuff? Telling other people about relationships, _Naruto thought. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"So how did it happen Yugito? Naruto probably won't tell me," Sakura asked Yugito.

"Were you and Ino twins that were separated by birth? Ino said almost the exact same thing. Why are you guys so interested anyways? It seems that only you and Ino are the only ones interested," Naruto told Sakura.

"Because we are, okay Naruto," Sakura said to him.

"I don't think she'll tell you anyways. It's our little secret, ha," Naruto said to her in a victorious tone.

_Naruto was right, _Yugito thought. _It was so weird and different how they got together that she wanted to keep it a secret between them, and them only._

"No, Yugito wouldn't do that to us. Would you Yugito?" Sakura asked her, a little worried that she wouldn't get an answer from Yugito.

"I'm sorry Sakura and Ino, I really am, but Naruto's right. I want to keep this between us only," Yugito said to them.

Ino and Sakura looked at each other with huge eyes. The way that Yugito said it made them even more interested.

They were all eating except Ino and Sakura. They were in deep conversation talking about their theories about Naruto and Yugito. None of which even came close to the truth.

"Are you escorting Yugito back?" Sasuke asked Naruto.

"Oh yea, I got to take one person with me," Naruto answered.

Naruto already made his choice when he was running back with Yugito. He figured Lee would be perfect. The climb up the mountain was hard, but he knew Lee wouldn't mind. Actually Naruto thought Lee would probably be happy that it was so high. Also, Lee would love sparring with Kato and therefore leave Naruto and Yugito alone.

"Hey Lee, do you want to go with me and Yugito to the Hidden Village of Cloud?" He asked his friend.

Lee's eyes were burning with fire. He really wanted to go to meet Yugito's sensei, but thought that Naruto would have asked someone else. "Yes, of course, I would love to."

"Hey what about me? I want to go," Ino interjected.

"Do you want to climb a 30,000 feet mountain?" Naruto asked her. When Naruto mentioned this Lee's eyes grew even wider.

"Ohh never mind, I forgot I have things to do, sorry," Ino replied.

Yugito was glad that Naruto choose Lee to go with them. Even though he was sort of weird, Yugito liked him the best. He had a good heart and never bugged her about her feelings and all that nonsense. Plus he worked hard and wasn't afraid to ask questions on how to improve his taijutsu. She also asked him a lot of taijutsu questions also because they had such a different style. Yugito also knew that Kato would like Lee very much.

"We'll be going tomorrow alright Lee? Meet us up at the front gate at 7:00," Naruto said to him. Lee gave him a thumb's up and smile.

The rest of the day Naruto and Yugito just walked around doing nothing much. They slept together again, this time on Naruto's one person bed.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The next day when Naruto woke up, Yugito was already cooking. She was in her black pajamas with yellow kitten faces this time instead of her red lingerie. Naruto was in his usual blue pajamas.

"Ehh, so you're cooking for me in my house?" Naruto asked her.

"Don't be silly Naruto. You've been cooking for me for so long I thought it would be nice if I cooked for you also," she replied.

Naruto went behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, "So, what are we having for breakfast?"

"Just some vegetables, bread, eggs, and milk," Yugito said.

"What? No meat or ramen," Naruto frowned.

"Nope, just a plain breakfast this early in the morning," Yugito told him. Naruto didn't like this, but figure it was worthless trying to fight so he let it go.

Ever since yesterday there was one thing that kept bugging her. She asked Naruto, "So you're coming back by yourself right? I'm worried about you."

"Don't worry I'm coming back with Lee," Naruto told her.

"But, that's the point. I know Lee's strong, but it's only you two, I thought Tsunade-sama would have sent more people with us," Yugito said.

"Like I said don't worry. You worry too much Yugito," Naruto told her.

He received an elbow to the stomach. It didn't doing any damage, but it did knocked the wind out of him, "Of course I'm worried. It's not exactly genins that are after you, you know."

"Don't worry, I got everything under control," Naruto gave her a hard kiss on the cheek when he said this.

"You know what, I'm going to ask Kato to come back with you also," Yugito said to him.

"No, don't do that," Naruto said to her making a frown.

"Yes, that's what I'll do. I'm sure he won't mind," Yugito said to herself ignoring him.

"We'll be escorting each other back and forth then," Naruto told her knowing how she was going to reject this already, but he had to try something.

"No, we won't be escorting each other back and forth. Kato isn't being hunted so he can make it back safely on his own," Yugito told him.

"I'll just tell Kato not to worry. He'll understand," Naruto said.

"Yea, you go ahead and tell him that, we'll see what he chooses," Yugito replied.

The food was finished and they each sat on their chair and ate. Yugito saw that Naruto really didn't like the food.

"You hate my cooking?" she asked him smiling.

"You know I don't hate your cooking. I hate this type of food. When did you get it anyways? I don't remember buying any of these," Naruto said to her while he was picking up lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes with his chopsticks.

"I got it the day when you were in the hospital with Tsunade-sama. You should eat a healthier diet sometimes you know that Naruto. At first I thought Ino was a person who just starved herself, but I was wrong. Maybe you can ask her for advice," Yugito said.

"Ha, that's the last thing I'll ever do. Ask Ino on how to eat healthier. She'll never let off the hook after I ask her for something like that," Naruto replied.

"Ok, but it really sounds like she knows what she's talking about," Yugito suggested.

"It doesn't matter," Naruto said.

They finished eating and washed the plates together. After eating Yugito took a shower while Naruto packed his clothes and equipment. Then they switched when Yugito got out. Finally it was time to go.

Naruto and Yugito reached the front gate and Lee was already there. He was doing one- finger push-ups.

"9689, 9690…" Lee felt Naruto and Yugito's presence and got up.

"Hi Naruto, Yugito, I was just training while waiting for you guys," Lee said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hidden Village of Cloud

When they reached the Hidden Village of Cloud Lee asked Yugito, "Is this why you don't get winded easily? Because of the elevation here." Lee wasn't winded, but that was because he was always training.

"Sort of. I also train a lot Lee," Yugito said to him smiling.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I know you do," Lee apologized.

"Don't worry Lee, I didn't take it like that. We should go to my house. I'm pretty sure you want to meet my sensei," Yugito said to him.

When they reached the house Naruto knocked on the door.

"Just a minute," a voice came from the inside. A few seconds later Kato opened the door.

"Hey, if it isn't Naruto and Yugito. Is this the friend that you rescued from the snake-sennin?" Kato asked.

"No, this is the one that we rescued. He's one of my friends though. Lee, this is Kato-sensei. Kato-sensei, Lee," Naruto said.

Lee and Kato shook hands and they entered the house. Kato looked at Naruto's right hand and saw that it was interlocked with Yugito's left hand. _So, me not being there did have an effect, _Kato thought. They all took a seat in the living room.

"So Naruto what happened during the mission?" Kato asked him.

Naruto told his story to him.

"I see, Jiraiya-sama is no longer with us. This could be big trouble," Kato said not saying anything that would gave Naruto and Yugito away to Lee.

Lee was surprised to see that Kato's sensei was barely older than him, "Kato, are you Yugito's sensei? If so, would you mind if we have a match together?"

Kato laughed, "What have they been telling you? It sounds like you think I'm better than Yugito. Even though I am technically her sensei, don't think that I'm better than her. We're the same, so if you can keep up with Yugito, you can most likely keep up with me. But, I wouldn't mind if we spar. Let me show you the dojo." With that they went upstairs.

"What do you want to do?" Yugito asked Naruto.

"We haven't trained or sparred for a long time. Want to do that?" Naruto asked her.

"Sure," she answered. With that they left the house and went to the village's training area.

After their sparring match in which Naruto and Yugito went back home. When they reached the house Naruto was surprised when Kato told him that Lee already went to sleep.

"This early," Naruto said to him. It wasn't exactly early, but it wasn't that late also. It was around 9 o'clock.

"Yes, he said something about sleeping so he can rest his muscle and train harder tomorrow. Saying that he needs 8 plus hours of sleep so that he could train effectively. You know Naruto, to me, it looks like all Lee does it train," Kato said to him.

"Basically, that's Lee for you," Naruto said.

"Well, I'm all sweaty, I'll go hop in the showers," Yugito said. With this she left Kato and Naruto alone.

When she left Naruto asked Kato, "Kato-sensei, why didn't you tell me you and Yugito were brother and sister?"

Kato was surprised, "I thought you already knew Naruto."

"Well, you guys never really mentioned it. You always called her by her name and she always called you sensei. I always thought you guys were you know…" Naruto said to him.

"It's a bad habit I know," Kato's was slightly confused by Naruto's second comment. "But, we never show any signs that we were in a relationship."

"I always thought it was how shinobis were suppose to act in a relationship," he replied.

"Well, I'm truly sorry Naruto. But, look you guys are together now aren't you?" Kato said to him.

"Yea, but I just wished I had more time to spend with her. I'm real scared now Kato-sensei," Naruto said in a worried voice.

"I will admit that I was scared when I found out Akatsuki was after me, but it's nothing compared to right now. When I found out that Yugito was a jinchuruki also, I was truly scared for the first time in my life. I'm scared that I'll lose her. I don't know if I can go on living without the feeling of how I feel now. I don't want her to go Kato-sensei," Naruto said to him looking for an answer.

_Ahh, this is so like Naruto. Not really afraid of what happened to him, but to other people, _Kato thought.

"Don't worry Naruto, we'll protect her as much as we can. I won't lie to you and say that she'll be alright because you're old enough now, but I know that I'll protect her with my life. I know that you will too. In the end let's just hope that it's enough," Kato said to him.

Yugito came back from her shower and sat on the couch.

"I think I'll take a shower now," said Naruto and he went upstairs to shower.

When Naruto went upstairs Kato said, "So you know about his problem, I assume."

"Yes brother," Yugito replied.

_Did I just hear her right? _Kato thought.

"Why the sudden change? I mean, I like it, but why now?" Kato said.

"Well, because of my ways I lost some valuable time that I can't get back. I figured that I should try changing myself a little bit," Yugito said to Kato. She thought about the time she could have spent with Naruto if it wasn't for her ways.

_Naruto, you can really change people, _Kato said.

"He's very worried about you, you know that?" Kato asked her.

"Yes, I do. I'm worried about him also. He's going back on his own, only with his friend. Would it be okay if you accompany him?" Yugito asked.

"Of course, I was planning on doing that anyways. I don't want him to get hurt also," Kato told her.

"Thank you," Yugito said.

"Why are you thanking me? I thought you said you were changing," Kato said to her with a smile.

"Well, it's kind of hard okay," Yugito replied.

Naruto came out of the shower and they decided that it was also time for bed. Naruto went to his room accompanied by Yugito while Kato went to his room.

The next day came and there was a knock on the door. Yugito went to open it.

"It's your guys turn. You know what to do," the woman shinobi said and she left.

"Kato, we got to escort the merchant," Yugito yelled upstairs.

Kato came downstairs with Naruto and Lee behind him.

"I was wondering when they would tell us. Well, let's go," said Kato.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked.

"Let's go and I'll talk on the way," Kato told him. They obeyed and followed Kato.

"You see, we live near the top of a mountain and for us to get supplies, a resident travels to the Country of Waterfall. We have groceries stores and little things in the Country of Lightning, but for other things we need to get it at the Country of Waterfall. It's far, but it's the closest place to our Hidden Village. While it's not an official mission, a shinobi family must escort the merchant each time whenever he goes. He goes about once or twice every two months. He also buys a lot of merchandise that supplies the village so sometimes there are enemies that might target him and his merchandise. This time Yugito and I have to escort him," Kato told Naruto.

"Where are we going then? We're not going to the front gate," Naruto said to Kato.

"We're going to the elevator," Yugito answered.

"The what!?… you guys have an elevator the whole time and we've been climbing this stupid mountain ever since I've been with you guys," Naruto said.

"And what has climbing the mountain do to you Naruto?" Kato asked him.

Naruto knew what it did. It made him stronger. But, he still didn't answer.

"Any respectable shinobi in this village would never use the elevator. The only time that we use it is to escort the merchant and for non-shinobis. There isn't a lot of non-shinobis that live in the Hidden Village of Cloud so it hardly get used," Kato told him.

They reached the elevator. It was located at the wall near the edge of the town. Kato pressed the wall and a huge door opened. They went inside and it was huge, about fifty feet wide and thirty feet tall. Naruto was surprised he never noticed something this big before, but it was camouflage.

"We'll wait for the merchant in the meantime," Kato said.

They waited for about five minutes when an old man appeared. He walked with a slouch and took very small steps. There were five empty wagons that were strolled by two oxen each.

He reached Yugito and Kato and said with a hateful voice, "so it's you this time."

Naruto didn't like this, he was about to walk up to the old man and give him a piece of his mind, but before he could do that he felt a hand holding his wrist. He looked back and Yugito just shook her head.

"Who are these people with you guys? I don't ever remember them," the old man said in the same hateful voice.

"These are our friends, they'll be helping us escort you," Kato answered in a normal voice.

"Fine, let's go," the old man said. He went inside the elevator. Kato pressed the button and the elevator started moving down. It was nearly ten minutes when Naruto felt the elevator moving to the side instead of down. It took another ten minutes and Naruto felt the elevator moving up now. The elevator's door opened and he looked outside. They were a few miles away from the mountain. Everybody got out and they started walking west.

_**No jutsu this chapter**_

_**Note: Manabu Akamon is in the manga. He's the old genin taking the chuunin exam when the Rookie 9 took it**_


	12. Ch 12:The Green Beast

Haven't updated for a week or so cause of Thanksgiving. Also cause something was wrong with FF I think. Well thanks for the replies so far and hope you like this chapter. Hope you people are enjoying it so far. Probably update in a few days or something.

**Chapter 12:The Green Beast**

It took them five days to reach the first town in the Country of Waterfall.

When they got to town the old man left to get some supplies. It was a medium size town. Naruto could see a huge waterfall in the back that formed into a river that went through the middle of the town. The houses were all the same. The houses were made of bricks. Red tiles made the roofs.

"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked Kato as they got into town.

"It takes him pretty long, so you guys can go out for a while. Come back in three hours or so," Kato replied.

"Alright I'm starved. Let's go find a ramen place Yugito," Naruto said to her.

"No, let's go to a nice restaurant today," Yugito replied in her usual voice.

Naruto raised one of his eyebrows, "no, we're going to eat ramen this time."

"Nice restaurant."

"Ramen."

"Restaurant."

"Ramen."

They began looking at each other with narrowed eyes, neither of them backing down.

"Lee, I think we should leave them," Kato said to Lee. Lee nodded and left with Kato.

"Fine, we'll eat at a nice restaurant this time and we'll eat ramen next time," Yugito said to him calmly, breaking her eye contact with Naruto.

"No we won't, we'll eat ramen this time and eat at a nice restaurant next time," Naruto answered back.

They resumed their staring contest.

"Fine, let's Roshambo then," Naruto said.

"Alright," Yugito answered.

"Person that win gets to choose where we eat, no ifs ands or buts. One win decides the winner," Naruto said. Yugito nodded. They played roshambo for about a minute.

"Yes, I won," Naruto said. He threw up his right fist indicating that he won.

"Come on Naruto. Let's go to a nice restaurant, please," Yugito said in her most helpless tone.

"Nope, you lost Yugito, we're going to a ramen place," Naruto replied smiling at her.

"Fine," Yugito replied. She crossed her arms indictating that she didn't like it. They walked to the nearest ramen place, not holding hands this time. Naruto didn't mind. He knew that she would get over it pretty soon. She wasn't a type of girl who would hold a little grudge like that for long.

They got to the ramen shop and sat next to each other. Naruto was on the right while she was on the left.

"I'll have three bowls of pork ramen and three bowls of beef ramen," Naruto told the waitress.

"I'll just have one bowl of miso ramen," Yugito said.

"Does anything ever happen on this mission?" Naruto asked her. Just as he expected Yugito was already over her loss.

"Not really. Once in a long while there are shinobis that attack," Yugito told him.

Yugito wanted to know more about his past. She remembered that Sakura told her Naruto grew up without parents. Yugito wanted to know how he dealt with the cold stares. She had Kato and her parents, even though they were dead now.

"Naruto I wanted to ask you how you dealt with the hate?" Yugito asked him.

Naruto leaned back on his chair looking up at the ceiling. Yugito couldn't tell if he was trying to remember or if he was trying to evade the question. After a few moments later he answered.

"I won't lie, Yugito. It was hard. Part of the reason why I think that I handled it was because of old man Sarutobi keeping it a secret from my generation. The only shinobis that knew were the ones that fought the Kyuubi. I also didn't receive any special training or anything that would make me stand out. While most of the people in my generation didn't like me, a couple of us did get along. I remember when Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, and I would pull pranks on Iruka-sensei. While we didn't hang out much, I think those pranks helped me a lot. It made me know that I was a part of something. Also, on my first day of graduating from the academy I learned that Iruka-sensei really did care for me. He risked his life to save me even though he knew I held the Kyuubi. After that, it was team seven. We didn't get along that well, but when the time came we protected each other with our lives. That showed me that they also cared for me. Then it went on from there, the Rookie 9 and team Gai taking the Chuunin Exam together. We all became closer after the exam," Naruto said.

"So how about you?" Naruto asked.

"I didn't have friends growing up. Even now I don't have any friends," Yugito said.

Naruto interrupted her, "you don't consider my friends, your friends?"

"I don't know. They seem nice and all, but I don't really know them that well. Maybe if I spent more time with them I could consider them real friends. Right now I see them as acquaintances. I don't even know if they like me or not," Yugito answered.

"I'm pretty sure they like you," Naruto said in a tone that suggested he really did know what they thought of her.

"How do you know?" Yugito asked him.

"They're my friends. I can see when they've accepted a person or not. They've accepted you. I'm pretty sure they tried to include you into their conversation sometimes," Naruto replied.

Yugito thought back. She remember Ino and Sakura of course, but she also remembered when Kiba asked her what she thought of Sasuke.

"Back to your regular question. I think I managed because I had Kato and a family. My parents died a while back, but after that Kato was the one that looked after me. Other than that I don't have anyone else. That was until I met you about a year back. You were the first person who accepted me outside of my family," Yugito said looking at him.

They held each other's hand after that. The ramen came and they began eating. After eating they visited the local stores for a while. There wasn't anything interesting, just a few bookstores and gambling stores. Naruto never gambled before and never planned to. He saw what it has done to Tsunade and vowed never to start. Yugito has already been playing slots for about an hour though. Naruto was standing behind her.

"Yugito, I don't want you to become a gambler like nee-chan. Can we go now?" Naruto said to her.

"There isn't anything to do here. Plus, we have about an hour left before we meet up with Kato so why don't you just take a load off and play for a while," she told him.

"No, I don't want to. I've seen what happened to nee-chan and I don't want to start. I also don't want you to be like her," Naruto told her in a serious voice.

Yugito laughed not turning back, "Don't worry I don't really like it. I'm just trying to kill time." She pulled the lever again. This was the truth. Yugito really didn't like to gamble. It was just that there was nothing to do in the town. When she looked back she could see that Naruto wasn't convinced though.

"Fine, we'll go," she said.

They wait for about 30 minutes when they saw the old man and the wagons coming up. Lee and Kato were also there with the old man.

"Everything finished?" Naruto asked as Kato came up.

"Yes, let's get going," Kato replied. They started to walk back. Kato and Lee were in the front while Naruto and Yugito were near the back.

They continued this formation for the next three days. The group was walking when they felt the presence of someone in the nearby trees. Naruto and Yugito immediately jumped to the front of the wagon where the chakra came from. They haven't seen anyone yet, but there was a chakra presence just before. There was no doubt about that, they took out their kunai and held a defensive posture. He or she was waiting for them.

"Did you see the person?" Naruto asked.

"No, but I felt it also," Kato answered him.

"Come out we've felt you already," Kato said outloud. There was no answer. He looked at Lee and saw that Lee was looking at the ground. _Was he scared or something. I was sure Lee already had field experience. He can't be scared now could he? _Kato thought to himself.

The foreign ninja was in the nearby trees. He was middle-aged, about thirty-five or so. He had green eyes and wore his forehead protector like Ebisu. He had the typical uniform jacket and pants. The forehead protector stated that he came from the Hidden Village of Waterfall. _Four kids. I'll take them out at once. It'll be easier like that._

He immediately jumped from the tree and started doing some handseals. As he landed in about ten feet in front of them he said, "Karada Chinou Setsudan (Body Brain Disconnection)." Naruto, Yugito, and Kato all tried to move, but found out that they couldn't. They were just standing still. _Damn, I can't move, _Naruto thought. The man immediately threw four kunais, each for one of their heads.

Lee immediately felt the kunais coming and dashed to grab Naruto, Yugito, and Kato. He managed to grab them all and move them out of the way before the kunais made any connections. Lee jumped near the third wagon and set them next to it. He immediately jumped back to the front to confront the guy.

_This guy's fast. He was able to get all three of his friends out of danger at such a close range. I can see him getting one person, but all three? It seemed that he didn't even lose speed while he was carrying them. I must not underestimate him, _the ninja thought.

"My name is Shouta," the ninja said to Lee. Lee didn't give him an answer. He continued looking at Shouta's feet.

"So serious. At least give me your name," Shouta said to Lee. He still didn't answer him.

Shouta took out another kunai. He jumped at Lee trying to slash him as he came down. Lee immediately moved out of the way and appeared behind him, giving him a right kick to the back which sent him hitting the ground. Shouta got back up. He was surprised to see the young man looking at the ground again. _What's this fool doing? _Shouta taught. He tried a sweeping kick, but Lee just jumped up avoiding the attack. As Lee was falling down from his jump Lee gave a right hook to Shouta's face sending him five feet to the floor again. Shouta stood back up, _Is he mocking me? Not attacking while I'm down and looking at the floor. _Lee was still looking at the floor.

Shouta looked to his left and saw that the other three shinobis still couldn't move from his genjutsu. He jumped and threw six kunais at their direction. Lee immediately moved in front of his friends and blocked the six kunais with the kunai that he pulled out with his left hand. Lee put his kunai back into his pouch.

_Damn, this kid, _Shouta thought. _Fine, I'll just make him a little weaker first. _He did a few handseals and said, "Nemuri no jutsu (Sleep jutsu)." After his jutsu there was a slow, soft melody coming from his hands.

He ran towards Lee to kick him, but found that Lee was gone from his sight. _Where did he go? My genjutsu didn't affect him?_ He looked down and saw the young boy getting ready to kick him. Lee sent him up to the air with a hard right kick. He then jumped to the air and gave Shouta a hard left punch to his stomach which sent Shouta coming back down at an accelerated rate. Before Shouta hit the ground, Lee went right under him and gave a right uppercut to Shouta's back. There was a loud crack as the hit connected. Shouta's spinal cord was broken.

Lee immediately went to the group. Lee took out a kunai with his right hand.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I don't know how to break genjutsu and I know you the most. So I guess it'll be you," as he said that he stabbed Naruto hard on his right leg.

"OOOOOWWWWWW," Naruto said as he was stabbed on the leg. He got up with most of his weight on his left leg.

"You didn't have to stab that hard," Naruto told him.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I assumed it was a high class genjutsu so I had to do enough pain to snap you out of it," Lee replied. Lee was right in his decision. It was a high class genjutsu so there had to be significant pain to release the genjutsu.

Naruto looked at Yugito and Kato and raised his hand, "Kai."

As he said that Yugito and Kato got up.

"Lee, you saved us all," Yugito said as she got up.

"No problem," Lee said. "Shall we continue our journey?"

"Yes," Kato answered.

Kato and Lee resumed their position in the front while Yugito and Naruto went to the back.

"Lee, how come you weren't affected by the genjutsu?" Kato asked as he and Lee jumped to the front.

"I didn't look at him," Lee said.

_So, that's why he was looking at the floor. It wasn't because he was scared, it was because he didn't want to be caught in a genjutsu, _Kato thought.

"How do you fight without looking at the opponent?" Kato asked him.

"Easy, I just look at their legs. It's pretty easy once you get used to it," Lee answered.

"Amazing, Lee you've got to teach me that once we get back," Kato said to him. Lee just laughed.

"How about other ways of affecting you without sight. Seeing a person is not the only way to cast a genjutsu," Kato said.

"That's true. Even though about 80 of genjutsu are cast when the victim sees a person, there are other ways. I have ways of dealing with those too," Lee said.

"How?" Kato asked curious.

Lee took out a little earpiece from his ears, "Here's how. Go ahead try them on."

Kato took the earpiece and put them on. _Weird, it didn't do anything_.

"So can you hear me?" Lee asked him.

"Yea, I can hear you," Kato replied.

Lee tapped something on his left thigh. He stepped in front of Kato. Lee was and he was moving his mouth. _Was he talking? _Kato thought. He couldn't hear a sound. Not the sound of Lee or the sound of the wind or the wagons trailing behind him. Kato was completely deaf. He took the earpiece back out.

"So that's how you deal with the genjutsu coming from sound waves," Kato said.

"Yes," Lee replied.

"How do you know what commands are given then?" Kato asked him.

"I can lip-read. My team usually knows that I'm deaf during a confrontation so they try to speak so that I can see their lips," Lee replied.

"That's usually the other way genjutsu are cast. They consist of about 10 of the genjutsu that are casts. As for the touching genjutsu, I just try not to get touch," Lee said laughing.

"For smell, I just breath through my mouth so that takes care of that. Taste genjutsu are rarely used. They are usually only used in preparation so I don't really worry about those," Lee said.

"What about ninjutsu then?" Kato asked him.

"I just follow the chakra. I just try and not get hit by it," Lee answered.

"Don't you want to see what they've cast so that you might learn it later or how dangerous it is?" Kato questioned him.

"No, not really. I just avoid all of them like they're dangerous. Naruto hasn't told you about my disability yet has he," Lee said.

Kato shook his head indicating that Naruto hasn't mentioned anything about Lee.

"I don't know why, but the group never mentions it to anyone. I'm guessing that they think it'll hurt my feelings or something, but to tell you the truth it doesn't. Well, I can't use mold my chakra to use ninjutsu or genjutsu so there's no reason to look at the handseals. That's also why I can't afford to get caught in a genjutsu. If I do and there isn't another person around, I'll most likely die," Lee told him.

"You've become a shinobi by only using taijutsu," Kato commented.

"Yes," Lee answered.

_If he took this much preparation to avoid genjutsu then his taijutsu must be real strong. No matter what he says, fighting an opponent only by looking at their feet must have took years. I know he was holding back in our sparring before, but I didn't know how much. Of course I was also holding back, but still he must have held back a lot more than I originally thought, _Kato thought to himself.

"So you were holding when we were sparring," Kato said.

This was true. Lee didn't see a reason to take off his weights in a spar. To use his gates in a spar would be insane. He could also tell that Kato wasn't using his full strength when they were sparring, "yes, I sense that you were also."

They continued talking until they reached the Hidden Village of Cloud.

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Hidden Village of Cloud

When they got home Yugito could tell that something was wrong with Naruto. After the shinobi attacked them, Naruto wasn't acting the same. It seemed like something was bothering him.

Lee and Kato immediately went to the dojo on the third floor. Naruto and Yugito went into their bedroom. Yugito was lying on top of him with her back on his frontside. His arms were around her body.

"What's wrong Naruto? I could sense that something's been bothering you ever sense we were attacked. Is it because you weren't the ones that saved us?" Yugito said to him jokingly.

"No, that's not it," Naruto replied in a serious tone.

"So, what's wrong then?" Yugito asked him in her normal voice.

"If I couldn't break free from that genjutsu then I don't know how I can break from any genjutsu that is casted by Akatsuki," Naruto replied.

"It was a difficult one to break out of. I couldn't break out of it either," Yugito told him trying to make him feel better.

"Yea it was hard, but still. I'm sure that Akatsuki can cast harder genjutsus than that," Naruto replied.

"So that what's been bothering you, Akatsuki?" Yugito asked him.

"Yes," Naruto answered.

"Naruto you're letting Akatsuki get to your mind too much. They're not even doing anything right now and they're still getting to you," Yugito said to him.

"I'm sorry Yugito, but I can't stop thinking about them," Naruto said.

"Can't you just stop thinking about them?" Yugito asked him.

"No, not really," Naruto answered.

"How are you going to live if you're always thinking about them?" Yugito questioned him.

"Before I didn't think about them as much when they were just after me. But, after I found out who they were also after, I couldn't stop," Naruto told her.

_So, she was the reason why Naruto was always thinking about Akatsuki, _Yugito thought to herself.

"Naruto I can take care of myself you know. Just relax a little and try to enjoy our time together," Yugito said to him. She turned around so that her face could meet his. Her face was a serious one. Yugito didn't want Naruto to spend all his time thinking about Akatsuki. She didn't like his current mood much.

"Fine, I'll try Yugito," Naruto said to her when he saw her face.

"Thank you, that's all I ask," Yugito replied. She returned to her position with her back on his frontside. Naruto immediately grabbed her hard between both his arms. She struggled and they both fell to the floor.

"Naruto, let me go, that's not fair," she said as they hit the floor. They were on their side now. Yugito was struggling, but his grip was too tight for her.

"Who's the strongest? Answer this and I'll let you go," Naruto said to her.

"Stop cheating and let me go. Then we'll see who's the strongest," Yugito said still struggling.

"I'll let you go after you answer who's the strongest," Naruto told her.

"It certainly isn't you," Yugito said.

"BZZZZ, wrong answer," Naruto told her. He squeezed her tighter in his arms.

"Naruto I'm serious, let me go now," Yugito told him in a commanding voice. Her threats were not taken seriously by Naruto.

"You're not answering the question," Naruto said to her. He proceed to tighten his hold.

She was trying to get out of his hold. The only thing that she could do was to try to head bunt Naruto with the back of her head, but it just barely hit his chest. She couldn't get any momentum to hurt him. She couldn't do anything so she finally gave in, "fine, you're the strongest," she said in a very low voice, almost in a whisper.

"What? I can't hear you," Naruto said.

"You're the strongest," Yugito said in her normal voice.

"Who's the strongest? Say the name and in a sentence," Naruto told her.

"Naruto is the strongest," Yugito said in her normal voice.

"Hehe, yes that is true, Naruto is the strongest. Now you know that also," Naruto said to her. Naruto let go of his grip. He could see that Yugito was getting up. Yugito didn't get up completely. As she was pretending to get up she quickly moved her left leg under the left side of Naruto's stomach. She dropped down behind him and moved her right leg around the other side of this stomach. She had him in a scissor leg lock. Yugito wrapped one of her arm around Naruto's neck and started to choke him.

"The strongest should never let their guard down. Who's the strongest now?" Yugito asked him.

Naruto's hands quickly went to his neck trying to break her choke-hold, "Yugito, you're choking me."

"Shut up Naruto. You better answer the question or you'll run out of breath soon," Yugito told him.

"I can't breath," Naruto said in a raspy voice.

"You're not answering the question," Yugito said tightening her grip more.

Naruto struggled some more. He tried with all his strength to break free, but her hold was too strong. Plus he was losing oxygen fast.

"Ok, ok, you're the strongest," he said in a low voice.

Knowing that he couldn't speak louder, she let go of her hold a little so he could talk. Naruto used this opportunity to break free, but Yugito was already ready for this. She retightened her hold before he could do anything.

"Didn't I say the strongest should never let their guard down? Try that one more time Naruto and I won't let you go the next time. I'll show you who's the strongest instead," Yugito said to him. She continued to hold him in a rear naked choke. It was about a minute before she talked.

"So, who's the strongest?" Yugito asked him again.

"You are," Naruto said in a low voice because he couldn't speak louder.

"I'm going to loosen my grip so you can talk a little bit louder, but you better remember what I said earlier," Yugito said to him. She loosened her grip just a bit, but not enough for comfort.

"So, are you going to answer?" Yugito questioned him after he didn't say anything for a couple of seconds.

"You're the strongest," Naruto said in a louder voice this time.

"The name and in a sentence," Yugito told him.

"Yugito is the strongest," Naruto said.

"Hehe, yes I know that. And you're her boyfriend, aren't you glad?" Yugito said. She let go of her grip and rolled on top of him looking at his eyes.

Naruto was massaging his neck and catching his breath, "Damn Yugito, you didn't have to choke me, you know."

"Just teaching you a lesson," Yugito replied and she gave him a peck on the lips. She was glad Naruto was in a happier mood now. Yugito got off of Naruto and got up.

"Naruto, I'm going to change for bed now so don't look, okay?" Yugito asked to him in a slightly serious tone.

Naruto was still on the floor. He glanced up at her. Even though they've been together for almost a week, Yugito never changed in front of Naruto. She would always change in the showers before she came to bed. The only time that he saw her body was the first time that slept together. After that, she would always wear her pajamas instead. _This was not an opportunity to be missed_, Naruto thought to himself. He was lost in his thoughts about seeing her body again.

"Are you going to answer me?" Yugito asked him snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Sure Yugito, I won't look," Naruto said and covered his eyes with his hands.

Yugito sensed something was wrong. "Promise me that you won't look Naruto," she said in a worried, but serious voice.

"Don't worry I won't look," Naruto said. He couldn't hide his smile that stated he had other thoughts on his mind.

"You haven't promised," Yugito said to him.

"I won't, don't worry about it," Naruto answered.

"Fine, if you're going to be like that," Yugito said. She did a couple of handseals, "Absolute Darkness." Everything went black. It was completely black for about 30 seconds.

"Kai," she said. When the darkness disappeared Yugito was wearing a purple pajama that had yellow cat-like eyes designs.

When she looked at Naruto she could see that he was disappointed. He had a small frown on his face.

"I didn't teach you that jutsu so that you could use it on me you know. I also said that I wouldn't look," Naruto told her.

"Well, you didn't promise so I had to do what I had to do," Yugito responded.

"I just wanted to see your body again. It's not like you were going to completely undress," Naruto said in a defeated tone.

"I'm a little embarrassed Naruto," she said calmly.

"Embarrassed of what?" Naruto asked. "From what I remembered it was fine with me."

"Don't know, I just am okay," Yugito told him. She said it in a tone that said this was her final answer. Naruto didn't ask her any more questions about her body. She wasn't mad yet, but Naruto could tell that she would be if he kept on pressing on.

Yugito went back on the bed. She was laying with her back to the bed and her arms behind her head.

Naruto got up and took off his clothes.

"You can see me," Naruto said with a laugh. He changed into his pajamas. Naruto was wearing a red pajama that had orange fox faces designs.

"It's different, you're a guy and I'm a girl," Yugito replied.

After he got dress he looked at Yugito. He forgot all about Akatsuki and remembered why Tsunade let him come by himself. It was to enjoy time with Yugito, not worry about Akatsuki. _I'm going to spend my time on Yugito while I'm here, not Akatsuki. I can take care of that later, right now I just want to spend as much time with her as possible. _Naruto lay on top of her. He rested his head just above her chest.

"Sorry about before Yugito, I forgot why nee-chan let me come by myself," Naruto said to her in a low voice.

"It's okay Naruto," Yugito answered. She put her arms around his head and they went to sleep.

**_Jutsu Descriptions_:**

**Karada Chinou Setsudan: Body Brain Disconnection**- (A-rank) A genjutsu that disconnects the brain from sending signals to the body. This jutsu is very hard to break out of by yourself since you can't use pain to cancel the genjutsu also.

**Nemuri no jutsu: Sleep jutsu**- (B-rank) A genjutsu that causes the victim to go to sleep. This genjutsu is cast through sound waves.


	13. Ch 13:Dreams

**Chapter 13:Dreams**

Yugito was in a forest that she didn't recognize. She looked around to see where she was, but couldn't see much because of heavy fog. The only thing that pierced through was the intense moonlight. A very house cat was on one of the branches. To her surprise she could see that it was almost half of her size. She could see the cat's big yellow eyes, but other than that she couldn't tell what color it was. Yugito assumed it was a dark cat. As she slowly walked by the cat, it didn't take its eyes off her and this gave her the creeps. Even as passed the cat, she could sense cat's eyes piercing through her back. She walked for another minute or two and looked back. Yugito could still see the two little glowing eyes looking at her.

She walked for another five minutes in the darkness until she saw two little lights. As she came closer and closer to the lights she realized that it wasn't a light. It was huge eyes. _Was it the same eyes as before? _Yugito walked pass it, this time a little faster. The cat kept its eyes on her as before. It was still giving her the same stare. She walked for another minute or so, but this time didn't look back. Her heart was racing. Yugito knew that the cat still had its eyes locked on her. She quickened her pace almost to a run now. After another minute or so she looked to her left side and saw a small fox barely larger than a house cat that was injured. It was panting heavily and bleeding heavily through its nose. Yugito walked up to it. She could see that it was terrified. Just then she heard something land behind her. The cat was coming towards her with his huge eyes looking at her. She froze because of her fear. The cat ran up to her closer and closer, just as it was about five feet from her, it eyes immediately went blood red. Just as the cat passed by her, she couldn't believe it, but she could see that there was an evil smile that it had. She thought that the cat was going to attack her, but instead it picked up the nearby small fox by its mouth and took it to a nearby branch. It ripped the small fox's stomach and began to eat the insides. It still had its eyes locked on Yugito when it was eating the small fox. Its eyes had changed back to yellow.

Yugito wanted to save the poor fox, but knew that it was already dead. She continued to walk forward. After ten minutes or so she saw what looked like a small fire. Yugito proceed to walk towards the flame. She cautiously walked towards the flame. As she got closer and closer she could see some outlines of people. She was about twenty feet from them. Yugito could hear some whispers, but couldn't make out what they were saying. She proceed to walk closer and could now see that there were ten figures. One of the figures did not look right though. It was in an awkward position and didn't look like he or she was standing on the ground. No, it looked like he or she was mindlessly floating a couple of feet in the air with his or her neck in a weird position. Yugito wanted to see what was happening so she walked closer. Just then the other nine people turned around. They didn't say a word, but just stood there. Suddenly the small flame burst and she could see the faces of the nine people. Each of them had a huge smile on their face. It was Akatsuki. She looked at the other figure and saw with her horror that it was Naruto. He wasn't floating like she thought. He was hung from a branch, lifeless. She screamed, but nothing came out. She tried to run forward, but somehow she was running in place. She tried to run as fast as she could, but it seem like she was being pulled back somehow. The nine figure still looking at her with their evil smile.

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"Yugito, Yugito, wake up," Naruto said. He was shaking by her should very hard, but she wouldn't wake up. Yugito was kicking and turning. She opened her eyes and "BAMMM," she pushed Naruto with such a force that he hit the ceiling and left a huge imprint of himself from the impact. He was dazed for a little bit from the attack. As he slowly fell from the ceiling she jumped up and swiped at him with her right hand. This sent him to the wall. Naruto sled down the wall and got up. When he got up he could see Yugito on standing on the bed. There was a purple flame surrounding her and two tails coming from behind her. Her stance was also completely different. Yugito was hunched over with her hands dangling in front of her. Her fingers also had claws now. The most noticeable difference was her eyes. Her eyes weren't the blue soft eyes anymore. They were now slitted and yellow.

Naruto could hear a loud bang at the door. Kato and Lee were at the other side trying to break in, but somehow they couldn't.

"Stand back Lee," Kato said. He kicked the door as hard as he could, but it didn't budge. Something was keeping it locked.

"I sense something else in you," Yugito said. It wasn't her voice anymore. It was a low voice and very ancient.

"Yugito wake up," Naruto yelled.

Yugito didn't listen, but immediately jumped at Naruto and tried to swipe him with her left hand. He dodged by jumping onto the ceiling, but he was fast enough to evade one of her tail and Naruto was grabbed by the waist. His arms were also between the tail so he couldn't do anything. Naruto could feel that his arms and waist was burning. _The chakra is burning me._

Yugito slowly pulled Naruto towards and looked at him. She gave a menacing laugh.

"So this is why I was set free." Yugito laughed in the same menacing laugh. "She was dreaming about you. This is the first time I've been let free."

"Let her go," Naruto said.

Yugito grabbed Naruto's face with her right hand. His face was burning now, but he couldn't do anything because her tail was still wrapped around him. Yugito slammed him so hard into the wall that he went through the wall and into the walkway. Yugito turned to her right and saw two people. She dropped Naruto and slowly walked towards Lee and Kato.

"Lee, we have to kill her," Kato said. Lee nodded. Lee immediately took off his weights. He flew at her at a high speed, but Yugito swung one of her tails and knocked him to the ground. She jumped at Lee while he was still on the ground and tried to punch him in the stomach. He managed to move just enough, but the attack still grazed the right side of his stomach. When she removed her hand there was a hole where her hand used to be. Lee crouched holding his stomach from the pain. He could feel his side burning also.

Kato jumped at Yugito, but he received a right roundhouse kick which sent him down the stairs.

Yugito could feel something coming from behind her and immediately swiped one of her tail. This knocked Naruto back straight through the bathroom door and sent him head first to the edge of the bathtub. The side of his head was bleeding now. He slowly got up and could see Yugito running at him. She tackled him by his stomach and they went straight through the bathroom wall. They were outside now and were falling down from the second story.

Yugito lost hold of Naruto while they were falling. They landed on their backs and Yugito got up first. Naruto got up also knowing that the ground wasn't a good place to be. _I got to take this some place else. There are too much people here._ He quickly jumped on the rooftop and started hopping from roof to roof. Yugito jumped on the rooftops also and followed him. He looked back and could see that she was gaining on him. Naruto crossed his finger and said, "Kage Bunshin." Two shadow clones popped out and tried to attack Yugito, but as soon as they got close to her they disappeared in a puff of smoke. She sent one of her tails at him tripped him. Naruto fell down hard face first. He could feel Yugito near him and turned around. She was in mid-air ready to attack his face with her claw like hand. He managed to dodge and she punched through the roof. Yugito's right hand was stuck in the roof. Naruto used this opportunity to get further away from her. She managed to free herself and resumed her chase.

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"Raikage-sama," a voice said. There was also a knock on his door.

"Come in," the Raikage said.

"Can you feel that, it's Yugito. We've got to stop her," the shinobi said.

The Raikage just looked out the window, "No, I see that someone else is already. Let's hope that they both die."

The shinobi looked confused, "But, surely you don't mean that."

"Do you question my reasoning? Yugito is no longer important to this village. She has become weak and we do NOT need weak shinobis," he answered in a loud voice.

"So, we're just going to let her run around and kill all the people in this village?" the shinobi asked him.

"No, we're going to let that boy kill her and hopefully she kills him in the process," the Raikage answered.

He knew that he couldn't kill Naruto directly because if the Hidden Village of Leaf found out that he killed Naruto then war would break loose. If Yugito killed Naruto, but survived then they'll offer her as an apology. If Naruto killed Yugito, the Hidden Village of Cloud will pressure the Hidden Village of Leaf to hand over Naruto. The Raikage knew that the boy was close with the Hokage, but he also knew that most of the council didn't want the boy in their village. He also couldn't kill Yugito directly because the council still thought of her as useful. The Raikage remember when Jiraiya brought the boy to town. He didn't care much about the boy at first, but as time went by he could see that the boy was affecting Yugito. None of the council thought this, but he knew they were wrong. Now that the boy has come back, he could clearly see that he was right. Yugito was no longer needed in the village. The Raikage looked out his window and hoped that they killed each other.

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Naruto reached the training area and stopped. Yugito jumped on the stage and stopped also.

"So you're not going to run anymore," the ancient voice said.

"I never planned to run away from you. I needed a good location," Naruto said.

He knew this was the only way to stop the Nibi.

_Fox, I need your help._

Two red big eyes opened and a grin appeared.

_**So you've finally decided that you need me after all. I though you stopped using me after you hurt your sensei?**_

_This isn't the time for that. Come on stupid fox or we'll die._

**_Is that a threat kit? I don't feel like it, _**the Kyuubi said in a boring toneJust then the Kyuubi felt an ancient power. The Kyuubi smiled.

**_Alright kit, just cause I want to show how strong I am compare to others I will help you. _**The Kyuubi laughed and faded into the background.

Yugito was walking slowly towards Naruto when she felt something. She stopped and smiled. The ancient voiced said, "is it really who I think it is? Is that you, you damn fox. I thought I felt something different radiating from this kid. I can see this will be better than I expected."

Red flames started to surround Naruto and he sprouted a tail. After a few moments more tails were appearing until it got up to five tails. His eyes became slits and changed from the soft blue color into bright red. Naruto's canines and nails also grew a lot longer.

_**What are you doing kit? I said I would give you some power. Why are you using only this much? It will be hard to beat the Nibi like this,** _the Kyuubi said in a loud voice.

_I have to be able to control the Kyuubi since Yugito can't control her bijuu right now. I can't risk losing control, _Naruto thought to himself.

_Shut up fox, I know what I'm doing._

_**You're going to get us killed you stupid boy.**_

Naruto ignored the Kyuubi.

"Is that all you have?" said Yugito in her ancient voice.

Naruto started doing some handseals, "Lightning Paralysis." Yugito jumped out of the way before his jutsu could trap her. Naruto did the same handseals again and again he missed. Yugito came towards him trying to attack his chest, but Naruto brought up four of his tails to block the attack. With his fifth tail he grabbed Yugito. After blocking her attack he also used his other tails to hold her tighter.

"Come on Yugito, find a way through it," Naruto told her.

Yugito just gave him an evil grin. Her chakra shot up and she broke through his hold. They were standing face to face about ten feet apart.

She went to attack him again and Naruto proceed to block her attacks.

**_What are you doing kit? Attack her, _**the Kyuubi said.

_Shut up fox, I said I know what I'm doing._

Naruto didn't listen to the Kyuubi and began blocking the attacks again. This went on for about four minutes when Yugito finally stopped. They were about twenty feet from each other.

"Haha, fox. You're pretty weak. I guess I'll kill you and name myself the strongest of us all," Yugito said.

The Kyuubi tried to force more chakra into the boy, but was stopped. The boy's chakra was holding his back. The seal was also holding back his chakra. The Kyuubi was getting mad. He was mad at the stupid boy for not fighting back. He cursed the Yondaime for sealing him inside a weak vessel that wouldn't attack another person. The Kyuubi was pissed at the Nibi for mocking him. He knew that the stupid cat wouldn't stand a chance if they weren't both sealed. He ran towards the cage with full strength, but was repelled back by the seal.

Yugito did a few handseals and said, "Pa-puru Hinotama (Purple Fireball)." About fifty purple flames the size of volleyballs appeared behind Yugito. They went straight for Naruto at high speeds. He managed to dodge all of them. Before he notice, Yugito already had another set of fireballs behind her. This time there were a lot more, about a hundred of them. Again they went after Naruto. He managed to dodge them most, but was hit by a few. The flames immediately caused some damage to him even though he was covered by the Kyuubi's chakra. This continued for another minute or so.

Yugito finally stopped and laughed, "Look like it's finished."

Naruto couldn't understand why the Nibi thought it was finished. He then looked to his left and saw about a hundred purple flames to his side. He then looked to his right in which he saw the same thing. Naruto already knew what was behind him. He was so concentrated on dodging the fireballs that he didn't see the previous ones setting themselves up by him.

Yugito quickly sent the last of her fireball in front of him. She didn't hit him yet, but now he was enclosed. Naruto didn't have a way of escaping.

Yugito put out her right hand with her palms opened. "Good-bye fox," she said and she closed her hands. As she did this, all the fireballs enclosed on Naruto. Naruto went into a defensive stance, blocking his face with his hands and arms, but the flames were too much.

After the attack Naruto was on the floor unconscious. He had third-degree burns and was bleeding from head to toe.

Yugito went up to him and saw that the kid was already beginning to heal itself. She did some handseals, "Bijuu Gokuin (Bijuu Seal)" and placed her hands on his stomach. There was a huge X right on top of Naruto's stomach.

"That should stop you, fox," she said. Yugito grabbed Naruto with her left hand by the throat and looked at him. She pulled him up a little and pulled her right hand back. Yugito concentrated her chakra into her right hand and punched through Naruto's right chest.

Suddenly her eyes were changed from the slit eyes back to her blue ones. They began changing back and forth from yellow to blue. She grabbed her head and kneeled on the floor. She was rolling on the floor with her hands clenching her head.

"NOOOOO," Yugito shouted. She was fighting for control of her body.

_No, not now, _the Nibi thought to itself. Then her eyes finally changed to being completely blue again. She was exhausted, but she vividly saw what happened and she knew that she had to save Naruto. Yugito went quickly to Naruto and placed her ears on his heart. She could still feel a faint heartbeat. _Hold on Naruto, please._ She placed the bloody Naruto on her shoulders and went to the hospital as quickly as she could.

When she got there, she could see a nurse reading something inside of the hospital at the counter. Yugito tried to open the glass door, but found that it was locked. She banged on the door and the nurse looked up. The nurse just put her head down again and started reading. Yugito knocked hard again, but the nurse ignored it.

Yugito knew that they weren't going to help her. She was furious. She didn't care that they wouldn't help her, but they weren't helping Naruto. Yugito broke the glass door with a hard kick and left. She knew that they wouldn't let her use any of their equipment so that's why she decided to leave.

She was worried now and didn't know what to do. The only thing left was to take Naruto back to her house and that's what she did.

When she got back to her house she jumped through the second floor wall instead of going through the door. She landed in the bathtub and proceed to carry Naruto to their room.

When she got in the hall she saw Lee and Kato. Kato was helping Lee walk to his room. Lee's stomach was wrapped in a huge bandage, but he was looking okay. She could see a huge blood stain going through the bandage though. Kato's left arm looked broken.

"I'm…" Yugito said.

She was interrupted by Lee. He gave her a weak thumbs-up and said, "Don't worry about that, it looks like Naruto needs your help more than us. We can talk about it later."

She nodded and went to her room. Yugito placed Naruto on the bed. She could see that he wasn't breathing now. Yugito placed her ears on his chest. She couldn't hear or feel a heartbeat. Her heart sank.

She knew what she had to do. It was a life or death situation. This was the only way that she could save him. It might cost her life, but she didn't even think twice about it. She did some handseals, "Itonami Shearingu (Life Sharing)." Her body gave a slight blue glow. Yugito placed him on the bed. She held him close to her trying to have the most body contact as possible. Yugito pulled the blanket over them. A tear dropped from her eye. _Please don't die Naruto. _

Her chakra was already beginning to waver after the first hour, but she willed herself to continue. To keep this will, she thought about what would happen if she lost conciousness or gave up. She knew that she could never let that happen and she continued in silence keeping this thought on her head so that she wouldn't give up.

She held him for another four hours when she felt him move a little. He was also breathing slightly. Yugito could sense that his circulation, respiratory, and nervous system was back, but he was still unconscious. She decided that she would hold the jutsu until he woke up just in case.

It was another thirty minutes before Naruto opened his eyes. It was morning, about six o'clock when he woke up. His body was aching all over. He could tell that he still wasn't healed and still couldn't move.

"Hey," he said in a weak voice with a smile.

"Naruto," she said. Tears rolled down her eyes.

"I thought you would be happy seeing me alive," Naruto said laughing a little.

"I am, it's just that… that… I thought I losted you," Yugito said.

"Well, I'm still okay. I can't move right now though, so I guess I'll just stay where I am. I like it here anyways," Naruto said to her and he put his arms around her waist. He fell asleep from the exhaustion.

"I like it with you also Naruto," she said to him, but he was already asleep. As soon as she released the jutsu Yugito fell asleep also from the exhaustion.

It was about six in the afternoon when they Naruto up. Naruto's wounds were feeling a little bit better, but not by much. Most of his minor wounds and minor burns were healed already. He didn't move off Yugito because he didn't want to wake her up. Naruto was surprised when he lifted the blanket. They were covered in blood. He just held her and decided that he would get up when she woke up also.

It was about thirty minutes before Yugito woke up. She gave Naruto a sad look.

They just stared at each other for a minute or so. Naruto didn't want her to apologize for what she did so he said, "maybe we should shower, we are kind of bloody."

She just nodded her head a little. Yugito got up from the bed and grabbed a towel. She also grabbed some clothes and went to the bathroom downstairs because there was a huge hole in the second floor bathroom. She was glad that Lee and Kato weren't downstairs yet.

Naruto also got up and put on some shorts even though he hasn't showered yet. _Yesterday was quite a night, _he thought to himself. Naruto grabbed the bloody blanket, bedsheet covers, and Yugito's bloody clothes. He put them in the corner. Naruto went downstairs and waited for Yugito to get out of the shower. It was about ten minutes before Yugito got out of the shower. Naruto went to take his shower.

When he came out he could see that Kato, Lee, and Yugito were sitting in the dining table waiting for him so that they could start eating. Kato was wearing a sling around his left arm while Lee had a huge bandage across his stomach.

No one talked while they were eating.

After everyone was finished Naruto took the dishes to the sink.

"Can I talk to Lee alone?" Yugito asked the group.

Naruto and Kato nodded and they stepped outside of the house.

"So, what is it that you want Yugito?" Lee asked her, already knowing the answer.

"I'm sorry about yesterday Lee," Yugito said.

"Don't worry, Kato told me all about it already. It wasn't you," Lee told her and gave her a thumbs-up and a huge smile.

"But I almost killed you," Yugito said to him.

"What? You mean this," Lee pointed at his stomach. "Don't worry this is nothing. Like I said earlier, it wasn't you that almost killed me. It was the thing inside of you. There's a difference Yugito and you should know that."

"But…" Yugito tried to say something, but Lee just held up his right hand telling her that he didn't want to hear her explanation of how it was her fault for his injuries.

Yugito sighed and asked, "Did Kato also tell you about Naruto?"

"Yes, he did," Lee answered her. "Naruto's still the same person and so are you. I would have like to know sooner, but I guess it's okay. I'm pretty sure the rest of the group would also like to know sooner than later, but it's not my decision when to let them know. I'll leave that up to you guys."

"Thank you Lee," Yugito said to him.

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Kato and Naruto walked outside.

Naruto was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"I don't want to her that ever again from you Kato-sensei. It's never something that should be said," Naruto said to him breaking the silence.

"What do you mean?" Kato asked him, not knowing what Naruto was talking about.

"When Yugito was being controlled by the Nibi I heard you said to Lee that you guys have to kill her. I don't ever want to hear something like that coming from you again," Naruto said to him. It wasn't in an angry voice, but a sad one.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but that was what Yugito said for me a long time ago when she was young. She told me that if she ever lost control of her bijuu, that I should kill her," Kato told him.

"It doesn't matter. I won't let anyone hurt her even if she isn't herself," Naruto answered.

"Let me ask you a question. How would you feel if you lost control and killed all of your friends or your village? Would you rather have you friends kill you or survive and have them dead? How would you live after knowing that you've killed all of your friends?" Kato asked Naruto. He also wasn't anger, but want to know what Naruto thought.

Naruto has always thought about this and already knew his answer.

"I would want my friends to kill me. I would rather die than kill my friends," Naruto answered.

"You see, that's the exact way that Yugito feels," Kato responded.

"Even so, I don't want to hear those words again. I will protect you guys if this happens again, but I will also protect her from you guys if this ever happens again," Naruto responded.

Kato nodded, stating that he understood. He would protect Yugito's from anyone even if she was taken over by the Nibi.

Naruto changed the subject, "Was this the first time?"

"Yes, this was the first time that it happened. I thought the Nibi could only take memories. I didn't know that it could possess a person also. There was always a chance that it could, but Yugito never let it get control of her before even when she was a child. I thought that it would have been easier when she was younger, but it never happened. That's one of the reason why I thought that she couldn't get taken over," Kato told him.

"What did you think happened then?" Naruto asked him.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure she must have had one bad nightmare. It happened when she was asleep so I'm pretty sure I'm correct," Kato answered.

Naruto wanted to know if Kato told Lee, "Did you tell Lee then, about our problem?"

"Yes I figured he should know after what he went through. I told him about you and Yugito," Kato replied.

"How did he take it?" Naruto asked.

"Just like a true friend would. He said that you were still the same person and that she was still Yugito."

Lee opened the door and said, "Yugito and I are finished talking. You guys can come back in if you want."

Naruto and Kato went back inside.

"I guess we should fix the hole in the bathroom and in the hall. I'll go buy some wood," Kato said to them. He left the house. It was fifteen minutes before he came back with some wood. Lee and Kato worked on the hole in the hall while Naruto and Yugito worked on the hole in the bathroom. They also cleaned up the bloodstain that was left by Lee. It was pretty late when they finished patching the two holes. Lee and Kato went to their respective rooms after finishing the hole.

Naruto was in the room that Yugito and he shared. He was lying in his sleeping bag by himself waiting until Yugito came up. They threw away the bloody clothes, blanket, and bed.

_Is she coming to bed? It's kind of late._

He waited another 30 minutes. After waiting for thirty minutes, he was worried about her so he decided to look for her.

Yugito was sitting on the chair in the kitchen thinking to herself, _I almost killed him. I can't let that happen again. I must distance myself from him so that I can't harm him._ Just then she heard footsteps coming from the second floor.

Naruto went downstairs and could see Yugito sitting on the chair. She was wearing long shorts and an oversized shirt that was probably Kato's.

He went and sat next to her, "Thanks for saving me Yugito?"

"What are you talking about? I almost killed you," she replied.

"No, I know that you saved me from the last attack. If you weren't there, the Nibi would have attacked in a different spot."

She didn't say anything for a long time. Even though Naruto was saying this, she couldn't believe it. It was her fault that he almost died and now he's thanking her, "I can't put you in danger again." She just looked straight ahead instead of looking at him.

Naruto replied, "What are you saying?"

"You know what I'm talking about," Yugito answered him.

"It wasn't you Yugito. Didn't I say that it was you who saved me? You have to make the distinction," Naruto told her.

She just stared straight ahead not answering him for a long time.

"We can't sleep together," Yugito said.

"Look I promise that I would try to wake you up whenever I can right? If we're not sleeping together then I can't do that. You should know that I don't go back on promises," Naruto told her.

"It was different, I only wanted you to wake me when I was having a nightmare, not when I was taken over," Yugito replied.

"No, it's the same. You can't get rid of me anyways," Naruto said looking at her. She still couldn't look at him.

"Please Naruto, I can't go through what happened yesterday again," she pleaded with him.

"You don't know how it's like, almost killing someone who you care for. Sometimes I wished that I wasn't alive," Yugito said to him.

Naruto immediately grabbed her upper arms and turned her around to see if she was serious about her last words. He looked into her eyes for a second and could see that she was.

"Don't ever think like that again Yugito," Naruto told her.

She could see that he was very angry. This was the first time that she had seen him this mad. Naruto didn't even look this angry when Jiraiya was killed by the snake-sennin.

"I know what you meant by that, not wanting to be alive," Naruto said.

"And to answer your question, I do know how it's like to be taken over. The Kyuubi took possession of me once during my training with sensei and I almost killed him. After the incident I felt like taking my life. My logic was that if I wasn't alive then I couldn't harm the people I care about. Sensei immediately sensed this and told me what it means to do something like that. He said that taking your life wasn't the answer. Only a weak person would something like that and it wouldn't accomplish anything. He told me to think of how my friends would feel if I do something that cowardly. Sensei told me that it was selfish to do something like that to them. And if you do something like that then you'll be taking the most important thing away from me," Naruto told her.

He let her think for a moment before saying in a serious voice, "Promise me that you won't ever think like that again."

It was the first time that Naruto had ever asked her to promise him something. She wasn't thinking clearly before, but it made sense now. _Naruto was right. If the roles were reversed and he took his life I could never forgive him for doing something like that._

"I'm sorry Naruto. I promise I won't think like that ever again," Yugito replied.

Naruto changed the subject after she promised him, "So, what were you dreaming about?"

Yugito just became silent for a moment and turned around. She had her back to him again.

"You know it'll be better once you tell someone," Naruto told her.

She made a sigh, "I was dreaming about Akatsuki. They had killed you and somehow I was running towards you, but I couldn't save you. I couldn't get closer no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't scream or make a sound." Yugito was breathing faster now because of the memories of her nightmare.

Naruto just answered her, "If I weren't so worried about Akatsuki that night, you probably wouldn't have that dream. I'm sorry about that."

"No, it wasn't your fault," Yugito said in a low voice. She was calming down now after she had explained what happened in her nightmare.

"You should know why nee-chan let me come," Naruto said.

She nodded stating that she understood.

"So are you coming or do I have to drag you upstairs?" Naruto asked her with a raised eyebrow.

She was feeling a little bit better now and tried to convince herself that it really wasn't her fault, "Okay, we can go to sleep then."

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The villagers were colder than usual towards Yugito and Naruto sensed this. They remained inside most of the time, but he didn't mind. Naruto already seen the village and just wanted to spend time with Yugito.

The two weeks went by too quick and it was time for Naruto and Lee to return home. Naruto hoped that Yugito would forget about what she said about Kato accompanying him back, but it seemed like she didn't. He tried to reason with his former sensei, but Kato sided with her also. They were at the gates of the Hidden Village of Cloud.

"I'm going to miss you Naruto," Yugito said.

"I'll be missing you too. Don't worry I'll write to you," Naruto said to her.

Naruto saw that Yugito had a worried face.

"Yugito, what's wrong?" Naruto asked. He already knew what was wrong, but didn't like the look on Yugito's face.

"You already know," Yugito responded.

"Come on, don't you remember what you told me that one night. You told me not to worry about Akatsuki so much. Now, this is definitely not suiting you. We'll come out okay, I promise," he said to her.

_Heh, he promised. He never breaks his promises, _Yugito thought to herself. This thought almost made her smile.

She tried to give a happy smile for Naruto, but it didn't work. Her face came out awkward. He knew she was very worried about him. It wasn't just his trip home that she was worried about. It was because she knew that they might attack him at any moment. Naruto went over there and held her in his arms.

"Please be careful Naruto," she said softly.

"I will, and you too," Naruto answered. With that he let go of her. The group began to leave down the mountain.

"Bye Yugito, I'll see you," Naruto said as he was leaving.

"You too," Yugito replied.

_**Jutsu Descriptions:**_

**Yugito Transformation- **(No Rank)A jutsu that calls upon the demon inside. This time she didn't call for Nibi's help, she was taken over. Can only be used by Yugito.

**Naruto Transformation-** (No Rank) A jutsu that calls upon the demon inside. Like Yugito, Naruto can also use his bijuu. Each tail represents how much extra chakra is given to him. Each sequential tail gives him more chakra exponentially. Can only be used by Naruto.

**Pa-puru Hinotama: Purple Fireball**- (S-Rank) A ninjutsu that shoots out many, many purple fireballs very rapidly. The fireballs are about the size of a volleyball. They are extremely hot because it's the flame of the Nibi. The dangerous thing is that even after being shot, the fireballs could still be controlled by the user. The only limit on how many purple fireballs that could be shot is how much chakra the user has. Can only be used by Nibi when it possesses Yugito.

**Bijuu Gokuin: Bijuu Seal**- (S-rank) A seal that seals the abilities of a bijuu. This can only be used on a jinchuruki. It has no effect on real bijuus. It is also only known by the nine bijuus. This sealing jutsu can only be used when the victim is unconscious. It lasts about four hours and cannot be removed.

**Itonami Shearingu: Life Sharing**- (S-rank) A jutsu that shares your circulatory, nervous, and respiratory with another person. It also transfers some of your blood to the other person if they're running out of blood. This is a higher dangerous jutsu that could also kill the user because their body has to work twice as hard to supply two people. The more contact between the two people, the better this jutsu works.


	14. Ch 14:Back to Business

**Chapter 14:Back to Business**

Naruto, Lee, and Kato made it safely to Konoha. They were at the front gate.

"Well, Naruto guess I'll see you again sometime," Kato said to Naruto.

"Yes, let's hope that we can put an end to this problem soon. Then we can all relax a little bit more," Naruto said.

Kato just smiled, "Alright, then just message me if you ever need anything again. I'm going back."

"Ok, see you Kato," Naruto said.

"See you Naruto, see you Lee," Kato said to them.

"Thanks for sparring with me Kato-san. You're advices were very useful," Lee said.

Kato laughed, "You act like you were the only one that gained something from our spars. Your advices were very useful also." Kato waved his hand and left them.

When Kato left, Naruto asked Lee, "Hey Lee, can you give nee-chan the report, there's something I have to do."

Naruto was thinking this when he was traveling back from the Hidden Village of Cloud. He must get stronger so that he can put up a good fight when the time came. He didn't know anyone else that could help him except one person.

Lee answered, "Sure, Naruto, I can do that," and he left to the Hokage Tower.

Naruto walked through the front gate. _Now, where did she live? I wasn't really close with her, but hopefully I can find out where she lived and see if she would still train me._

He was still walking when he saw Shino.

"Oh, hey Shino, do you know where Kurenai-sensei lives?" Naruto asked him.

"Just go straight until you reach Hokage Tower, but instead of going through the gate make a left. Her house is the one with all the flowers," Shino told him.

"Thanks," Naruto replied. He began to run to her house.

Naruto knocked on the door with the most flowers.

Kurenai opened the door and to her surprise Naruto was standing in front of it.

"Hello Kurenai-sensei, I know that you don't know me that well, but I was just wondering something?" Naruto asked her.

She didn't know what Naruto could ask her but she replied, "Sure Naruto, what is it?"

"Well, you're the best genjutsu user here in Konoha and I was wondering if you don't have anything to do, could you perhaps help me on my genjutsu? It doesn't have to be everyday, but I would be very glad if you helped me from time to time," Naruto told her.

She was thinking this through. She knew Naruto had a good heart. Kurenai was still a little mad that Naruto didn't get together with Hinata. She found out about Naruto and Yugito after she saw how Hinata was acting. Kurenai finally managed to get Hinata to tell what was wrong. Even though she was mad at Naruto for not getting with Hinata, she knew that was partially Hinata's fault. Hinata didn't have the courage to go after him and with someone like Naruto, he won't be on the shelf for long. Kurenai knew he wanted to learn from her because of Akatsuki. Missions were low right now and Kurenai thought that it she might actually enjoy teaching him.

"I don't have any genin team right now Naruto. And since missions are getting low I can teach you one on one," Kurenai said to him.

"Really? That's very nice of you, thank you Kurenai-sensei," Naruto said to her.

"Alright, go to training ground that's next to the academy. I'll come after I get my gear," Kurenai said.

"Right now?" Naruto asked.

"What? I thought you wanted to train," Kurenai said.

"Oh sorry, of course I would. It was just that I thought you might be busy or thought it over some more," Naruto said.

"Well I did, and I figure we should train as soon as possible if you want to learn a lot," Kurenai told him.

Naruto nodded his head, gave her a grin and left.

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Kurenai arrived a minute after Naruto.

"Okay, what do you want to know about genjutsu Naruto?" she asked him.

"Well, mostly dispelling. I want to be able to cast some also, but I think knowing how to dispel them would help me more right now," Naruto replied.

She knew that was going to be the answer. Learning to dispel genjutsu is a little easier than casting them. Maybe if he had more time he might have wanted to learn them, but that's something he didn't have.

"Alright then, I'll cast a few genjutsus on you and let's see how you do. I'll start with the easier ones and we'll move up from there," Kurenai said.

After hours of training, Kurenai was surprised that Naruto was already good at dispelling before he came to her. She didn't expect this much from him. He dispelled some of her B and a few of her A-rank genjutsu. She knew that it was different on the battlefield though. While he could dispel it when it was just him and her, she knew it was a different atmosphere on the field. Unlike ninjutsu, emotions and feelings greatly changes a person's ability to dispel genjutsu. Kurenai also knew that Naruto brought a lot of emotions and feelings when he fought. This could be a disadvantage when facing a genjutsu user.

Kurenai was running low of chakra from casting her jutsus too much and told Naruto, "Okay Naruto that's it for today. My chakra is getting low, lets call it a day."

Naruto stood up and asked, "Kurenai-sensei, can you do me another favor?"

"What is it Naruto?" Kurenai said.

"Well, I'm not really tired right now and I want to train some more, but I need your help," Naruto said.

"Go on," she replied, not knowing where he was going with this.

"I'm sure you've already felt the ANBU's that's has been tailing me. They were sent by nee-chan. Can you cast a genjutsu on them so that I can leave to train by myself? We can make it so that they think I'm still here training. I don't want to be training with them watching," Naruto said.

Naruto was right, she felt the ANBU's presence after 30 minutes of their training. She didn't know why they were watching them, but assumed that they were watching Naruto. Kurenai thought through about what Naruto just said. It was Tsunade's order for ANBU to watch him. She would be going against the Hokage's order if she did something like that.

"I don't think I can Naruto. Tsunade-sama sent them to watch you and I would be disobeying an order if I participated in anything like that," Kurenai said to him.

"Come on, please," Naruto said.

"Why don't you just train with them watching?" Kurenai asked him.

"I'm not going to do regular training," he rubbed his stomach.

_Oh, so he's going to train how to use the Kyuubi better. That's why he needs to be alone, _Kurenai thought.

"I don't think that's a good idea Naruto. What would happen if you can't control it?" Kurenai said to him.

"That's why I need you to cast a genjutsu on them so that I can go to a deserted place. If I lose control, I'll just rage around there until my body collapse. I've already found a place where there isn't anyone, but I can't go with them watching me," Naruto said to her.

She really didn't know what to think. On one side, it would be a great help to Naruto if he could control the Kyuubi better. On the other, it was against the Hokage's order. She thought about Akatsuki. What would happen if they came to him while he was training? But, what would happen if he didn't train to control the Kyuubi. Naruto would have a slim chance of winning.

She made up her mind, "Okay Naruto, I'll cast a genjutsu on them. This jutsu will replay a fifteen second movement for four hours. I want you to be back here pretending that you were training by that time so that we don't get caught. I'll come back her also so that it'll seem like we were training together. If you don't get back and we get caught then I'll never do this again."

Naruto nodded.

"Okay sit here and don't make any sudden movements."

He wasn't going to betray Kurenai's trust in him. He sat on the grass and closed his eyes, not making any sudden movements. She sat down also looking at him, not making any big movements.

She did a few handseals, "Riwaindo no jutsu (Rewind jutsu)." There was another Naruto and Kurenai sitting on the ground when Naruto stood up. It looked like they were sitting there practicing genjutsu dispelling.

"Okay, Naruto remember," Kurenai said. He nodded and took off. She also went home. _I hope I made the right choice, _she thought to herself as she got home.

Naruto reached the place where he mentioned to Kurenai. It was a very small cave that was surrounded by large trees.

_Fox you there?_

No answer.

_Answer me dammit. It's not like you can go running off._

**_What kit?_ It said like Naruto was irritating him.**

_We're going to train._

**_Shut-up, you weak vessel. You couldn't even beat the Nibi you weak piece of shit. I was willing to help then also, but you had to be a hero and hold back our power. And now you want to train with me?_**

_If you don't help me, we'll die from Akatsuki for sure. _Naruto tried to bait him.

There was a long silence for a couple of minutes.

**_Fox, answer me dammit._**

Just then Naruto felt a huge evil chakra radiating inside of him_**He's pushing it too fast.** _Naruto sprouted 6 tails immediately**. _I got to slow it down._**

He fell to the floor one hand holding his stomach while the other clenching the ground. 8 tails had already sprouted. _Push the chakra back, _he told himself, but it was getting harder and harder.

Naruto was still on the ground holding his stomach. Kyuubi was laughing now,** _I told you that you were weak. You know what I'm going to do after I take over your body? I'm going to visit the Nibi again._**

_No, _Naruto thought to himself. He had to stop the chakra or else Yugito was going to die. With all his chakra left he pushed back the evil chakra.

The Kyuubi gave a loud chuckled. _**How did you like that?**_

He was lying on the ground panting.

After 3 hours he was strong enough to get up. He went back to the training ground. Kurenai was already there.

"I see you're back. Alright let's dispel this genjutsu so we can go to my house," Kurenai said to him.

"Is something wrong Naruto?" she asked him. He looked like a wreck and she could tell that he was beyond tired.

"No, I'm fine," Naruto said in a weak voice.

_Kyuubi must of took a bite at him, _she thought.

Kurenai dispelled the genjutsu, "Alright, if you're fine let's go."

They reached Kurenai's house. When Naruto got in he saw two couches to his right in the livingroom. One couch was a recliner while the other could fit three people. She had all these paintings on the wall. He didn't know what they were. It wasn't a picture of anything really. To him it just looked like paint splattered on the canvas. Her livingroom also had a television and some tables with flowers set on them. There was a tall lamp in each corner of the livingroom. Straight ahead was the kitchen. It had a table with four chairs on each side. She went in the kitchen and grabbed some wine for her while getting some orange juice for him.

"Go ahead Naruto, don't be shy, sit down," she told him. He took a seat on the couch. Naruto was regaining his strength back already.

"What are these paintings?" he asked her.

"They're called abstract painting. Some of them aren't suppose to be anything while others are up to your imagination," she said.

_Kurenai's first description seemed to match the paintings more than her second,_ Naruto thought.

"So, I want to know why you want to practice genjutsu?" she asked him changing the subject.

"As you probably know Akatsuki is coming after me and I figured that genjutsu is where I'm the weakest at," Naruto told her.

"So you want to learn it also?" Kurenai asked him.

"Yes, of course. I really want to, but I know it's a lot harder to cast it than to dispel it. I figure that if I learn to dispel it better, it'll still help me," Naruto said.

"What about after all this Akatsuki stuff is done? Would you still want to learn it?" she continued asking him.

Naruto didn't know where she was coming from but answered, "of course, that is, if you're still willing to teach me after."

"To tell you the truth Naruto, most shinobis don't think very highly of genjutsu," Kurenai said.

"What? You must be kidding me," Naruto said.

"No, it's true. Most shinobis either take the ninjutsu route or the taijutsu route, especially males. They think of genjutsu as just supplement because it usually doesn't kill. Most of the time, after they learn dispelling genjutsu and they stop there. That's why I was wondering if you would still continue after I teach you how to dispel it better. I wanted to know if you were interested in it or just wanting to learn how to dispel it," she said.

Naruto thought this was really stupid if shinobis didn't want to learn genjutsu. _Shouldn't all ninjas try to master everything? He can see it in if they couldn't use it like in Lee's case, but shouldn't shinobos try to learn everything if they could?_

"Well, that's their lost. I know that you're a genjutsu user and you're strong so it can't be weak. I wouldn't mind being as strong as you in genjutsu. Also Kakashi-sensei uses genjutsu all the time," he answered her.

"There are exceptions, but I'm just telling you how most people think. Even Kiba and Shino didn't really want to learn it. Hinata did, but her father didn't let her," Kurenai said in a sort of disappointed voice.

"Wow, you must be kidding me. I would be trying to learn all that I could if you were my sensei," Naruto told her. _Unlike Kakashi, Kurenai was willing to teach all of her students, but instead they didn't want to learn_, Naruto thought to himself.

"Nope I'm not kidding, they mostly practiced their family jutsus while I just taught them the basic things," she said. Kurenai was already beginning to like Naruto.

"Another reason why people don't try to learn genjutsu is because it's very hard to cast the higher level genjutsus. Unlike ninjutsu or taijutsu, emotions and feelings affect genjutsu. While most shinobis cover their emotions pretty well, they still have feelings inside of them on the battlefield especially if they're working with someone they care about. That's why a lot of genjutsu users work alone. The emotions and feelings can affect a genjutsu. It doesn't matter if you're happy or mad, it can disrupt it or it might be casted wrong. That's why there aren't many genjutsu users, because even if they hide their emotions, it doesn't mean that they don't have any," Kurenai said.

Naruto thought about himself. He brought his emotions to the battlefied almost everytime. That was how he fought and didn't know if he could change. Could he be a good genjutsu user?

"Do you know any genjutsu?" Kurenai asked him, disrupting his thoughts.

"I only know one, 'Absolute Darkness,'" Naruto responded.

_Wow, an A-rank genjutsu, _Kurenai thought. _Maybe there's hope for him._

"I know you bring your emotions when you fight, but it might work after all. Because you express it so much, a lot of your emotions come out instead of getting bottled inside. We'll just have to wait and see," Kurenai told him.

Naruto finished his orange juice and set his cup down. "Thank you Kurenai-sensei, same time again tomorrow then?"

"Sure Naruto," she replied.

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For the next two weeks Naruto worked on his genjutsu dispelling. He also wrote letters to Yugito, but there was nothing important in it. Naruto was afraid that it might get intercepted somehow so he didn't put much in the letters. Naruto also began learning how to cast some genjutsu. He was getting the hang of it. Once in a while she would also cast her 'Rewind jutsu' to let Naruto train by himself. She hasn't thought him that genjutsu for obvious reasons. Kurenai would only do this about two times a week despite Naruto's begging because she was worried that they might get caught.

It was morning and Kurenai was walking on the road when an ANBU came up to her.

"Kurenai, Tsunade-sama wishes to see you," the ANBU said. He left after that.

Kurenai went to Tsunade's office.

"We have an A-rank for you Kurenai," Tsunade said.

"We want you to capture an A-rank missing nin alive. Our information states that he might know where Akatsuki's base is located. He's not a member, but Akatsuki uses people to do some of their minor chores for them," Tsunade told her.

"His name is Takuya. He's by a near by village. Don't attack him while he's in the town, but as soon as he leaves you may. Here's how he looks like," she said. Tsunade pulled out a picture and handed it to Kurenai. He was slightly built, more so than Gai. The man's hair was brown, split in the middle and very long. He had a scar on his left cheek about three inches long. The man didn't have on a forehead protector.

"Can I take Naruto with me?" Kurenai asked Tsunade.

"Why do you want to take him?" Tsunade questioned her.

"I've been looking after his training and I think it the experience would benefit him," Kurenai stated.

Tsunade thought it out for a moment._ The chances of Akatsuki being near Takuya isn't high because they would have sent one of their men instead. I guess it's okay._

"Fine he can go with you," Tsunade told her. Kurenai left the office.

She went to Naruto's house and knocked on the door.

Naruto opened the door, "Hey Kurenai-sensei. What are we doing today?"

"We're going on a mission. Hurry, get your stuff and let's go," Kurenai told him. Naruto quickly got dress and grabbed his equipment.

They left the Hidden Village of Leaf.

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She gave him a brief outline of their mission.

"So where is he located and what does he look like?" Naruto asked her as they were traveling through the woods.

She gave him the picture, "He's not far either. He's at a near by town, about a day or so run. We are to capture him alive and outside of the town."

They traveled southwest until they reached the outskirts of a small town. They stopped there waiting. It took them a day to reach the town. There was really nothing there. Just a few houses made of bricks, a few stores, a gambling place, and a hotel.

Naruto and Kurenai were at a near-by tree. "Is this the place?" he asked Kurenai.

"Yes, we'll wait for him until he decides to leave the village," Kurenai said. They waited for three hours until they saw a man coming out of the gambling place that looked like their target. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon when they saw him coming out.

"Let's go about a mile ahead and wait for him," Kurenai said. Naruto nodded and they left.

It took about 15 minutes before they saw him. He was wearing a grey cut-off shirt, with the typical blue pants. Kurenai was right, he was very built. The picture didn't show his body, but when she saw him, he was a lot bigger than what she imagined.

She did a few quick handseals, "Ryuuki Ki (Rising Trees)." Suddenly there were trees everywhere. The man quickly grabbed his kunai and said in a low voice, "I guess I do get to have some fun on this mission."

Naruto did a few handseals and said, "Kamofura-ji jutsu (Camouflage jutsu)." He and Kurenai disappeared into the background. He did a few more handseals and whispered, "Genkaku Shazou (Illusion Image)."

"Ha, these cheap illusion won't work on me," the guy said. He ran around the tree and saw two figures: a black haired woman and a yellow hair boy sitting down behind a tree. "Gotcha," Takuya said out loud. He jumped at the boy and woman with his kunai and stabbed the boy in the side of his stomach. The yellow hair boy fell down after he was stabbed.

Naruto was behind a tree watching the missing-nin attack his illusion image. He did a couple of more handseals before Takuya touch the floor, "Mizu Dekisui (Water Drowning)."

Instead of landing on the ground like he thought he would, Takuya immediately felt himself fall into some water. He immediately started holding his breath. _What? Did they hide the lake by using a genjutsu. _Takuya was falling deeper and deeper into the bottomless lake. He tried swimming up, but found that he couldn't. Takuya looked up and could see the yellow hair boy looking down doing some handseals. _Is this why I can't swim? Did that boy do something to this water? _Takuya was panicking. After three minutes, he passed out from not having any oxygen.

In real life the genjutsu wasn't hiding the water. The genjutsu was the water. Takuya was just standing on the ground the whole time kicking his legs trying to swim up. He just passed out from holding his breath too long and Naruto was just standing on a tree doing some handseals.

"I've never seen those handseals before. What do they do?" Kurenai asked him.

"Oh, just a move I made up. It was just for show. I figured it would look like I was doing something when in reality I wasn't," Naruto responded.

Kurenai just laughed, "Naruto you really surprise me sometimes."

"What? I just wanted to make it look real," Naruto answered smiling and scratching the back of his head.

They picked up the man and took off back to Konoha. Naruto and Kurenai kept him drugged so that he won't wake up during their trip back.

They reached Konoha next afternoon and took the hostage to Tsunade.

"Well here he is," Naruto told Tsunade, putting the unconscious man on her desk.

"Good job, did you guys have any trouble with him?" Tsunade asked them.

"Actually we didn't. Even though he was an A-rank missing nin we didn't receive any problems from him. I think it was because we surprised him," Kurenai said to Tsunade.

"That's good to hear. Okay, I'll get Ibiki to see if he can get anything out of him. Your free to go," Tsunade told them.

They both left the office.

"Hey, lets go celebrate our first mission together," Naruto said to Kurenai.

"Sure, why not. I'm getting hungry," Kurenai answered him.

They went to the usual restaurant that everyone went to. Naruto and Kurenai entered the restaurant and saw that Kiba, Sakura, Hinata, and Shino were already there. Naruto gave them a wave and took a seat a few tables away from them. He wanted to talk with Kurenai alone about their mission. Kurenai took a seat by Naruto.

Naruto and Kurenai were in a conversation as they walked by the group.

Sakura said to the group, "We've been seeing Naruto a lot with Kurenai-sensei lately. What do you think is going on?" This was true, it seem like everytime they saw Naruto, they also saw Kurenai.

"I don't know," Kiba said in a loud voice.

"It's obvious that Naruto is training under her," Shino told the group.

"What do you mean Shino?" Kiba said.

"Exactly what I said," Shino answered.

"But, she's our sensei. She can't be teaching someone else," Kiba told him.

"Correction, she was our sensei. The day we became Chuunin was the day she wasn't our sensei anymore. Anyways, she can teach other people if she felt like it," Shino told Kiba. This was the truth, Kurenai haven't been teaching team 8 ever since they became Chuunin.

Naruto sat down and Kurenai took a seat across him.

Naruto was excited, "So, so, what did you think? I know you let me do most of the work so that you can assess how well I did."

Kurenai was impressed that he put together all those jutsus himself, but played it off, "it was okay."

"What? Come on, it was only 'okay.' Give me more credit than that Kurenai-sensei," Naruto said to her.

Kurenai smiled at him. _He was always looking for acknowledgement. Fine, he did do better than what I expected._

"Fine, you did good and I was surprised you did that well, but you still have much to learn," Kurenai said, still keeping her smile. Naruto grinned.

Just then their menu arrived and they ordered. Naruto ordered some ramen. He knew it wasn't as good as Ichiraku, but he also knew that Kurenai doesn't eat ramen so that's why he came to this place. After that they went back to talking with each other.

"Let's talk about genjutsu then. How does it work and all that?" Naruto asked. He knew what it did because he experienced it before, but didn't know how it worked.

"Genjutsu that are casted on objects or non-living things usually can't be dispelled. It's up to the shinobi to figure out what is real and what is fake or to figure out a way out of the genjutsu. Most genjutsu that is casted on the user messed with their chakra manipulation. If a person can't control their chakra very well, then it makes it even harder. Usually the higher level the genjutsu the harder they are to dispel. Most genjutsu can be cancelled by pain. Again, this depends on the level. The higher the level the more pain is needed to cancel it. Genjutsu can be used on any of the five senses: touch, smell, hearing, vision, and taste or any combinations of them," Kurenai told him.

Kiba stood up from his chair and went over to Naruto and Kurenai. Shino was going to stop him, but was too late and he didn't want to make a huge scene.

"Kiba-kun," Hinata said in a low voice that no one could hear.

"Hi Kurenai-sensei, hi Naruto," Kiba said in a loud voice. There was a tone of jealously in his voice.

"Hello Kiba," said Kurenai.

"Uh, hi Kiba," Naruto replied, sensing Kiba's anger.

"So… what are you guys doing?" Kiba asked.

"We were just celebrating our first mission together," Naruto said to him.

"First mission," Kiba said nodding his head slowly with his eyes glaring at Naruto.

"What is it Kiba? I could sense your chakra and it's smelling worse than usual. Hurry up and say what's on your mind so I won't have to smell it anymore. I don't like it," Naruto told him.

"You know what I don't like. I don't like you stealing our sensei," Kiba said in a loud voice.

"I didn't 'steal' your sensei," Naruto quickly replied standing up to face Kiba.

"Both of you quiet down," Kurenai told them.

"Look Kiba, I'm no longer your sensei, okay. Naruto asked me to teach him and I accepted. That's all there is to it," Kurenai said to him.

Kiba looked at Naruto, "Why didn't ask your former teacher instead then?"

"First off, Kakashi-sensei isn't here most of the time. Second, even if he was I would have asked Kurenai-sensei first anyways," Naruto told Kiba. Even though Kakashi also used a lot of genjutsu, Naruto would have rather learned it from Kurenai. Mainly because a lot of Kakashi's genjutsu involved his Sharingan. Also, his genjutsu were mainly for one person. Naruto wanted to be a more well rounded genjutsu user.

"How come you never thought us after we became Chuunins?" Kiba asked Kurenai.

"You guys never asked. I figured you guys didn't want to learn anything from me anymore," Kurenai answered. This was true, it was just that Kiba was jealous of Naruto's bond with Kurenai that he wanted to ask her something like that.

"I can still teach you guys if you want me too," Kurenai replied.

"No, it's okay, Kurenai-sensei," Kiba answered. With that he went back and took his seat.

"Yea, wanting you to teach him after he really didn't even want to learn in the first place. He was just jealous that I'm getting along with you that's all," Naruto said in a slightly angry voice.

Even though Kurenai knew this was true she said, "don't say stuff like that Naruto. It's not true."

"You know its true Kurenai-sensei. I know he was your old student, but I can't just let that slide," Naruto told her. "Enough about him anyways, let's get back to talking about genjutsu."

They continued talking about genjutsu even after they ate all of their food.

Naruto wanted to learn so much about genjutsu that it surprised Kurenai. She always thought that he would find the topic of genjutsu boring. It got late and they went to their own house.

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Naruto went up to Hokage Tower the next day wondering if Tsunade got any information of the guy that they captured.

"Did you guys get any information of him?" Naruto asked.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but it seems like he was under a genjutsu. He doesn't remember who he is or where he was. The genjutsu was very powerful," Tsunade said.

He left Hokage Tower and went to Kurenai's house. They kept training for the next month. Their bond grew closer than what each of them could ever imagine. To Naruto, Kurenai taught him more than Kakashi ever did and he was grateful for that. She genuinely wanted to teach him and he was willing to learn. She also helped him in his training with the Kyuubi by casting a genjutsu on the ANBU that was always following him wherever he went. To Kurenai, Naruto was a person who really liked what she taught him. He wanted to learn everything to become stronger. Over the last month, Naruto also taught her a lot of his ninjutsu and taijutsu.

**_Jutsu Descriptions:_**

**Riwaindo no jutsu: Rewind jutsu- (**C-rank) A genjutsu that replays a moment in time over and over again for 4 hours. It can be used over a large area.

**Ryuuki Ki: Rising Trees- **(C-rank) A genjutsu that duplicates trees. It makes it so that the victim sees many trees surrounding him/herself. It is used to trap people inside or to make them confused.

**Kamofura-ji jutsu: Camouflage jutsu-** (B-rank) A genjutsu that blends the user and whoever they wish to the background.

**Genkaku Shazou: Illusion Image-** (C-rank) A genjutsu that puts an image of yourself onto an object. The difference with this and Kage Bunshin is that the image does not disappear when hit. Another difference is that it can't move. It also acts like a real person when hit.

**Mizu Dekisui: Water Drowning-** (B-rank) A genjutsu where the user makes the victim think that they are drowning under water. The victim starts to sink when this jutsu is cast. The victim also feels like they are underwater.

**Fake handseals-** (E-rank) A jutsu that Naruto made up. It's just some random handseals that doesn't do anything, but it makes it seem like he's doing something.


	15. Ch 15:Unofficial Mission

Sorry for the long update, finals week. I also won't be updating until January because I'm going to be busy these holidays with my family so it'll be another long time before another update. Okay, let's go.

**Chapter 15:Unofficial Mission**

The Hidden Village of Cloud

It has been about two months since Naruto left and Yugito was on the bed writing to him. It pained her that she couldn't really tell him anything because of the fear of it being intercepted. She just wrote about a paragraph and set it aside. She rolled over on her back and began thinking, _when will I see you again?_

She was all alone in the house. Kato was already on some mission by himself since yesterday. This was weird because the Raikage usually teamed them up. This was one of the rare times that Kato was sent on a mission without her. She heard a knock on the door. Yugito went downstairs to open it.

An ANBU was there when she opened the door, "the Raikage wishes to speak with you." He left after that.

She reached the Raikage Tower and entered the door.

"Yugito here at your request," Yugito said.

"Here is your mission Yugito. It's a B-Class mission. You are to assassignate this man. He is located somewhere in the Country of Fire," the Raikage said. He gave her a picture.

"Is that all the information there is?" Yugito asked. She was wondering why the information was so vague.

"Yes, do you need more? You should find him somewhere in the Country of Fire," the Raikage said firmly.

"Should I wait for my brother?" she asked wondering if the Raikage wanted her going alone.

"Did I ask for your brother?" the Raikage said with a slightly angry tone. Yugito could sense that he was getting angry.

Yugito thought it was weird for her to go alone, but said, "As you wish Raikage-sama."

It would take her six days to get to the border of the Country of Fire. After the fifth day she was out of the Country of Lightning. During the six day she traveled south a little further. It was nighttime and she was lying on a tree thinking about going back to the Country of Fire. _Should I go and visit Naruto while I'm in the Country of Fire?_ She began thinking about her mission when she felt something coming at her. Yugito quickly jumped from her position and avoided the scythe that was thrown.

She landed on the ground and saw two Akatsuki members. It was Hidan and a blue-hair girl. She was in her mid-twenties. Her hair came down and covered one of her small slantly eyes. There was also a white flower that was in her hair.

"My name is Leiko," said the girl.

"It doesn't matter what your name is," Yugito said, narrowing her eyes.

"It seems that stupid Raikage came through after all," Hidan laughed.

Yugito's eyes widen for a second and Hidan noticed this, "Surprised, aren't you Yugito?"

"Didn't you find it weird that you were sent on a mission by yourself or were you too stupid and ninja-like to think for yourself?" Hidan asked her.

"You know what people say? They say cut off the head and the body will die. You know what I say? I say control the head and you control the body," Hidan laughed.

"You can thank your boyfriend for your Kage's betrayal. After he saw how you changed, he didn't really care about you anymore. You were seen as weak. And all it took was a little persuasion to get you by yourself," Hidan said.

"A little persuasion, what did you do?" Yugito asked in a venomous tone.

"Easy, we took his daughter as hostage. We promised him that we would let her free after we got you. We sent him a tape of his daughter," Hidan said. He started to laugh.

"What's even funnier is that he believed us that we would let her free. What he doesn't know is that she's already dead," Hidan laughed even harder.

Hidan said in a high baby girl voice, "ohh daddy, please save me."

"Zetsu really deserves an academy award for that," Hidan said.

"He wouldn't have believed you that easily," Yugito replied.

"But, that's where you're wrong Yugito. You see whenever Zetsu eats a person he receives all the information that the person had. He can also easily morph himself into that person perfectly. You can't tell the difference between the person and Hidan, perfect movement, perfect voice, the memories, everything's the same. With knowledge of the person's past and Zetsu's ability, it was very easy to fool the Raikage," Hidan said.

"It's funny because he even gave us your brother," Hidan said to her. Yugito's eyes opened a little. Hidan reached for something that was behind him. He pulled out a small bag and unzipped it. Hidan pulled out the content in the bag and threw it at Yugito's feet. It was the head of Kato.

_No Kato, not you. _Yugito clenched her fist. She knelt down and looked at the face. She was angry at the Raikage for not only thowing her away like trash, but her brother also. She was angry that these bastards would do anything to get to her, even kill a young child. She was angry at herself for not thinking anything through and just following orders. Yugito began to feel energy radiating throughout her body. _This is it, I can't hold back. Last time I was almost killed by him. I've got to stop them now_.

She stood up and did some handseals, "Gogyou Kaisou (Water Reflection)." A large pool of water came up in front of her. She did another set of handseals, "Sakini Ke-pabiriti (Beyond Capability)." Yugito slammed the floor with her hands and purple flames started surrounding her. Her eyes changed from regular to slitted eyes. Her canines also grew longer. The dark purple flame started to take form of a cat around her. Her fingernails grew longer and two long purple ears formed. One tail started to sprout out behind her and then another. Yugito's hair was up in the air waving calmly.

She stared at Hidan.

"You will pay," there were two voices, Yugito's and a low growling voice.

She made a dash towards Hidan. _Too fast, _Hidan thought. Yugito swiped at the two Akatsuki members. Hidan was hit in the chest and flew five feet back while Leiko jumped up into the air. Yugito looked at Leiko and jumped also. She went was traveling towards Leiko at high speeds. It was too fast for Leiko to dodge and Yugito threw a punch which took out half of Leiko's stomach. She died instantly. Leiko hit the ground with a loud thud. Blood was pouring from Leiko's stomach. Yugito landed on the ground also next to Leiko. She did a few handseals, "Zetsumei Yomigaeri (Death Resurrection)." Leiko stood back up. She was standing like a puppet now.

"My, we have a problem here," Hidan said, not showing any fear.

He threw his scythe at Yugito, but Leiko came and stood right in front of it, taking the impact. Yugito knew that Hidan couldn't see her because the corpse was blocking his view so she immediately went to his right side and swiped down with right hand which caught his ribs. She took another swipe with her left hand, but he managed to block it. He couldn't block her following attacks though. Hidan was sent a few feet back after he was kicked. He got up and did a few handseals, "Burning White Fireball." A white fireball went straight for Yugito. As it got close to her she took a deep breath and blew out a breath of purple fire. Hidan's White Fireball was ingulfed in the purple flame. The flame hit Hidan on the chest and stomach, burning his sleeves and giving him a third degree burn. His chest and stomach were sizzling with his blood.

Leiko was also also attacking Hidan from behind. _She's too fast, I can't keep up. Plus she has that damn Leiko working with her, _Hidan thought as he was trying to evade the oncoming attacks. Because of his injurying and Yugito's superior speed he was getting hit almost everytime for the next 10 minutes. Once in a while Hidan could block the first hit, but was always to slow to block the second or third hit. Things were not looking good for him. He was sent to the ground again and got up. Yugito stopped her attack for a moment.

He was smiling. His body was burnt and he had many deep scratch marks on him from Yugito. Almost half of Hidan's left upper thigh was also gone, but somehow he didn't seem scared at all.

"You know that you've lost right? Remember what I told you the first time we met. I said that you won't be so lucky next time. Looks like it's true," Hidan said to her. He closed his eyes and his body started to change. His skin was completely black now. Hidan's face changed into a skull. There were also white marks where there should bone. It looks like the outlines of his bone were on his skin.

Yugito and Leiko attacked him again. Hidan had given up on offense. He was just trying to block and dodge their attacks. It was the same outcome as before, he would be able to only block a few attacks, but get hit by the following attacks. This continued this for five minutes.

_Why won't he die? Is he really immortal like Kato said? _Yugito thought.

"You see Yugito, I've taken all your strongest attack plus Leiko's attack. Just give up easily and I promise I won't hurt you 'that much,'" Hidan said to her.

"What are you talking about, you haven't even been able to get an attack on me yet," Yugito replied with only one voice this time.

"I don't need to. I can see that you can't hold your transformation much longer. A few more minutes and your body will collapse," Hidan said. As he said that a small amount of blood came down from Yugito's shoulder and went down her arm.

Hidan looked at the blood, "see, and you can't beat me if you don't have your Bijuu helping you. You lost, just admit defeat and come with me peacefully." Hidan smiled after he said that.

"I promise I won't hurt you," he continued smiling.

It was true. Yugito knew she couldn't hold her transformation that much longer. She was beginning to feel pain inside of her now. Her body was beginning to tear up from the inside. Just then, Leiko dropped to the floor. The purple flame surrounding Yugito was getting smaller and smaller by the second.

"I can see you're at your limit," Hidan said looking at the Leiko's corpse.

_No, I can't lose now. I've got to defeat him, _Yugito thought. Yugito was panting heavily. She did a few handseals, "Nain Itami (No Pain)." The purple flame around Yugito got bigger.

"Tchh, you really don't know when to quit, do you?" Hidan said to her.

Yugito was covered in little streams of blood now. Little streams of blood were dripping from everywhere, her face, her arms, and her legs. Her body couldn't feel the pain because of her jutsu, but her body couldn't handle it anymore. She attacked Hidan again, hitting him and knocking him ten feet away. He got up and resumed his defensive stance. The same thing happened again for another five minutes. Suddenly the purple flame around Yugito disappeared and she started to drop to the floor. The last image she saw was a worried blond hair teenage boy running to her trying to yell out something, but she couldn't hear it. His right hand was stretched out reaching for her. Yugito also stretch out her left hand, but couldn't grasp the boy's hand. _Naruto, _she thought. Yugito dropped to the floor with a thud.

"Finally, stupid girl. She should have known she lost already. She almost killed herself using that technique," Hidan said.

He gave her a hard football-like kick to her face, "that's for damaging me."

Hidan did a few handseals, "Futa Kaori (Covering Scent)." He did another few quick handseals, "Komakai Shouheki (Small Barrier)." A small barrier surrounded Yugito and another small barrier surrounded him. He picked up the bloody Yugito and left. _Good thing she killed Leiko though. That means more of the lout for me._

Kakashi was quickly traveling to where he felt the two chakras. He suddenly felt one of the chakra disappeared. To his surprise it was the bigger chakra. _Chakra usually doesn't disappear like that. It usually fades down, not suddenly disappear. If that happened it usually means that someone has died. This is bad._

It took him thirty minute before he got to the place. He saw that the battle was already over. Kakashi sniffed the air for any sign of a scent that he could follow. He couldn't smell anything. He saw a girl's body on the floor with half of its stomach taken out and a decapitated head with a forehead protector stating that he came from the Hidden Village of Cloud. _Was this Naruto's sensei? If it was then I got to recover his body, but I also got to try and find out where the other person went._ He knew what to do.

Kakashi did some handseals and said, "Summoning no Jutsu." A big black bulldog and Pakkun appeared. "Alright guys, find this guy's scent and when you find his body also, bring it here." Pakkun and the bulldog nodded.

_Hmmm, there's only one way that they could have gone. I've got to look for some clues._ "Kage Bunshin," he said and twelve shadown clones appeared. "Alright spread out and let's search for any obvious clues," he told the clones. He knew that they couldn't travel far from him, but wanted them to search just the area for clues. Kakashi jumped from tree to tree looking for some sort of clue.

It was fifteen minutes before Pakkun came back, "Kakashi we brought the body back like you said." Kakashi went back to where the decapitated head was. The body was right next to it. He took out a seal and wrote some designs on it. Kakashi did a few handseals, "Sealing no jutsu." The body and head made a 'pop' noise and a second later there was only a puff of smoke.

"Alright guys, thank," Kakashi said. He did another few handseals, "Unsummon," and Pakkun and the big black bulldog disappeared in the smoke.

He went back to his search. It took him about a half hour before one of the clones came to him. "I've found a clue," it said. Kakashi followed him to a nearby tree. A very small branch was pointed in a different direction than the others. He released the clones and went in that direction.

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Kakashi went to Tsunade's office. He didn't knock on the door, but opened it and said, "Tsunade-sama, they got Yugito."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

"I've followed them to their hideout and I've located it. To my surprise it isn't as far as we thought. It's actually in the Country of Fire," Kakashi told her. His voice was a little faster than usual. Tsunade could tell he was worried.

_So, instead of locating themselves far away from the enemy like a normal group would, they located themselves near us, _Tsunade thought.

"How long has it been?" Tsunade asked him.

"I tracked them yesterday night and I'm pretty sure they're still extracting her. Since they lost a member fighting Yugito, it will take more time also. I would say about three more days or so. The least is a day and a half," Kakashi informed her.

"Did they get another member to replace the one I killed?" Tsunade questioned him.

"I don't know. I couldn't get close enough to see," Kakashi replied.

"How long will it take to get to the hideout?" she asked him.

"About two to three days depending on the group size," he answered.

_Damn, the missions had to start coming in right when we find out Akatsuki's location, _Tsunade thought to herself. This was true, a lot of missions have been coming in lately and a lot of the shinobis were on them. They had to attack now though because Akatsuki might move after the extraction.

"Okay Kakashi, find four teams of ANBU and take them with you. Go to the hideout and take them out," Tsunade told him.

"Yes," Kakashi replied. He was about to open the door when he heard Tsunade's voice.

"I hope you heard me right Kakashi. I said four teams of ANBU, not Naruto and his friends," Tsunade said in a commanding tone. Kakashi just opened the door and left without answering.

He closed the door and saw that Sakura was there. Sakura was embarrassed that she was caught eavesdropping, but Kakashi didn't even think about that.

"You heard what happened, go get Naruto and meet me near the front gate. Find the people that he trusts and tell them also. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. I'll go check if Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma are still in town. And hurry, I'm pretty sure Tsunade-sama is going to send some ANBU teams after us when she finds out that Naruto's going," Kakashi told her. _Sorry Tsunade-sama, but this is something Naruto has to know. I would rather die than not tell Naruto what had just happened_. They both started to run out of Hokage Tower and passed Shizune on the way.

_Damn that Kakashi, he's going to tell Naruto, _Tsunade thought. This was different from before when she let Naruto escort Yugito back. While that was risky that time, this time they were going to attack Akatsuki. She didn't want Naruto to die or be captured. Who knows what would happen if Naruto is captured. This would mean that Akatsuki had all the Bijuus. Naruto was falling right into Akatsuki's hand.

"Shizune, Sakura come here now," Tsunade yelled.

After a minute or so Shizune opened Tsunade's door, "What is it Tsunade-sama?"

"Where is Sakura?" Tsunade asked her.

"I saw her running with Kakashi. Why?" Shizune said.

_Damn, I was also going to tell Sakura to help Shizune, but what can I expect. She was Naruto's old teammate. She's with Kakashi on this one, _Tsunade thought.

"Okay, round up four teams of ANBU and send them out to the front gate. Tell them to stop Naruto and his gang from leaving. Tell the ANBU's not kill them, only to restrain them," Tsunade told Shizune.

"Yes," Shizune said. She immediately left the office.

"What's the use of being Hokage if your soldiers won't even listen to you," Tsunade said sitting lazily on her chair. She was rubbing her temples with her fingers. Tsunade poured some sake and drank it. _I'm too old for all of this work_.

Kakashi was outside of the gate waiting for Gai and Kurenai. Asuma was on a mission.

"So what's the mission rival?" Gai asked as he and Kurenai appeared in front of Kakashi.

"This isn't an official mission for you guys, but Akatsuki got Yugito. I need you guys for something," Kakashi said to them.

"Sure, so we're going to face Akatsuki then?" Gai asked. He punched his right fist into his left hand showing that he was ready for action.

"No, I need you and Kurenai to do something else," Kakashi said.

Gai's happy grin turned serious, "what is it Kakashi? If we're not going to fight Akatsuki with you then what do you want us to do?"

"Naruto and his friends should be here any minute. Also, I'm sure that Tsunade has sent some ANBU after us. I need you and Kurenai to hold them off for a while," Kakashi said.

"What!? No way. I should go and fight Akatsuki also," Kurenai told him. She feared that Naruto wouldn't come back. Kurenai felt like an older sister that had to watch her little brother no matter what. And even though she knew Naruto was stronger than her, she felt that she should still be watching over him.

"I'm sorry Kurenai, but I need someone who can cast a big genjutsu to distract the ANBU for a while. No one else but you, can do it," Kakashi said to her.

"I don't like the idea of Naruto fighting Akatsuki. He's my student also and I'm worried for him. I know he has improved, but I also know his limits," Kurenai said.

"Let me ask you a question Kurenai. If Asuma was in this situation, what would happen if no one let you go?" Kakashi asked her.

She knew what she would do. It wouldn't matter who told her to stay. No matter what she would go to him.

Kurenai answered regretful tone, "Alright then."

"Then why do you need me here. I should go and help you guys also," Gai told him.

"No, the ANBU team will sooner or later find out that it's a genjutsu. I need you to take them out when that happens," Kakashi said.

"Take out ANBU!? Attacking your own men, I'll be put in prison for that," Gai said.

"I'm not asking you to kill them. I'm just asking you to knock them out for a while. I'll take full responsibility for your actions. Come on Gai, we can't be arguing over this right now," Kakashi told him.

"Why don't you get someone else to do it while I accompany you to fight Akatsuki," Gai said. He also didn't like the idea of his former students fighting Akatsuki members.

"There are only four people that have enough stamina to run back and forth taking out the ANBU. They are not going to come from one direction. I need a person that can run back and forth very fast without getting tired. The only people can do that are you, Lee, Naruto, and Tenten. We know why Naruto can't go. Tenten's in ANBU so I think she shouldn't be doing this. They'll forgive you since you're older than most of them," Kakashi said to Gai.

"What about Lee then?" Gai asked already knowing the answer. Still, he would rather have Lee stay and do what he was doing instead of fighting Akatsuki members.

"No, I need Lee for this mission Gai. First, ANBU won't forgive Lee that easily. Second, Lee's faster than you and I need him for that reason. You already know who he's going to fight already. Your ninjutsu and genjutsu skill won't work on this particular opponent. I need someone real fast," Kakashi said. This was true, even though Gai was stronger, Lee has surpassed him in speed.

"Fine," Gai said in an unhappy voice.

Kakashi looked at Gai and Kurenai. He could tell they weren't happy of his plan. Kakashi could tell that they were worried about their former students.

"Have faith in them. They're not young anymore. They can pull through this. If I didn't believe that then I wouldn't have told them to come," Kakashi told them.

Kakashi looked to the village and could see thirteen figures coming towards them. Naruto and the whole group appeared.

_I can't believe it. They're all here. I was sure some of them would have been on missions, _Kakashi thought. _Now we just got to wait for one more person._

Kakashi looked to his left and saw Temari coming. _Good, she's here, _Kakashi thought.

When the group arrived Kakashi said, "alright, I'm sure Sakura or Naruto has told you guys what happened. This isn't an official mission, but we're helping Yugito. Hurry, let's go." The group began to follow him.

"Wait," Naruto said. The group turned around to face him. Lee already knew what he was going to tell them.

"I want you guys to know who you are helping before you go. Akatsuki are after Bijuu's. Yugito and I have a demon in us. I have the Kyuubi in me and she has the Nibi. If you guys don't want to help us because of that, then I understand," Naruto told them while looking down.

The group didn't say anything for about five seconds. They just stared at Naruto.

Kiba spoke up, "Heh, don't try to act all cool Naruto, Yugito's our friend too. Let's go."

Akamaru barked and the group nodded.

"Naruto, please be careful. I'll come after I distract ANBU long enough," Kurenai said in a worried voice. Kurenai gave him a hug.

"Gai, Kurenai, you guys know what to do," Kakashi said. They nodded.

**Gogyou Kaisou: Water Reflection**- (D-rank) A ninjutsu that puts up water in front of the user. It shows a reflection of the user.

**Sakini Ke-pabiriti: Beyond Capability**- (A-rank) A genjutsu that is casted on oneself. It removes the mental barrier that the brain has set up so that a person won't overexhaust itself. It increases speed, power, and reaction. Unlike gates, this move doesn't force the muscle into the extreme.

**Zetsumei Yomigaeri: Death Resurrection**- (S-rank) A ninjutsu where it resurrects the dead. This technique can only be used by Yugito. There are many differences from this jutsu and Edo Tensei. This technique can only summon people that were previously killed unlike Edo Tensei. Also, this technique does not require human sacrifices. This technique is acquired from Nibi. Whenever Yugito stops using Nibi, the soul is no longer under her control. (I got this jutsu from reading Nibi's power)

**Burning White Fireball-** (A-rank) A very hot fireball. They say that the temperature of a candle is around 1500 degree Celsius. As a flame gets closer to being white the hotter it gets. A white flame can go up to 3000 degree Celsius. This jutsu can cause major damage if it hits in the right place. The downside is that it's only about the size of a volleyball and therefore easy to dodge.

**Yugito's Purple Flame-** (No rank) This jutsu doesn't require handseals. It is from Nibi and extremely hot. A long flame is shot out from the user's mouth. (I got this jutsu from reading Nibi's power also)

**Hidan's Transformation- **(No rank) This transformation helps Hidan's defense.

**Nain Itami: No Pain**- (A-rank) This ninjutsu makes the user feel no pain. The disadvantage, the user feels no pain. Pain is not a weakness, it is a signal for the body so that it can know when to run or when to shut itself down. A person can overexert oneself after using this technique.

**Futa Kaori: Covering Scent**- (B-rank) A ninjutsu where it masks your scent for up to three hours. You can also use it on other people.

**Komakai Shouheki: Small Barrier**- (C-rank) A ninjutsu that covers a person. It is easily destroyed by physical force or chakra. Hidan used it so that his and Yugito's blood won't leave a trial.

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	16. Ch 16:The Battle

Hello everyone, I'm back from my long break. Sorry for not updating a little sooner. Good news is that I'm almost finish and have it planned out. Bad news is that I'm still stuck in some places, mainly details. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

**Chapter 16: The Battle**

Everyone started following Kakashi.

Shikamaru and Temari were in the middle of the group talking to each other. Temari was in her fishnet stocking and her a one piece white dress from the Chuunin Exam. The dress was still short showing her thighs. She also carried her fan on her back.

"So why did you come?" Shikamaru asked her.

"Kakashi told me. Actually it was his dog, but you get the point," Temari said. When Kakashi found out Akatsuki's hideout he summoned Pakkun to get the message to Temari.

"I didn't ask how you found out, I asked why did you come?" Shikamaru asked her again.

"They killed my brother you know. I want my fight with them also. Plus Naruto changed Gaara and I've got to help him for that," Temari answered.

"Your Kazekage let you come?" Shikamaru asked her.

"Dummy, I'm the Kazekage now. Kankarou is looking after the village while I'm gone," Temari said.

"Oh great, another woman that's leading a village," Shikamaru said to himself. Temari gave him a hard hit to the face that sent him five feet to his side. He was able to reposition himself in the air and landed on one of the branches. _Did I say that outloud? I really got to shut up sometimes._ He rejoined the group. This time further away from Temari.

Naruto went to Kakashi's side.

"So how long is it before we reach the location?" Naruto asked.

"I say about one and a half day if we hurry," Kakashi said.

"Do you want to lead this mission?" Kakashi asked. Kakashi thought that he was better suited to lead this mission, but understood if Naruto wanted to lead it instead.

"No, even though I know most of the Akatsuki's strengths, but I haven't been keeping up with our group's capabilites. I think it would be better for the group's survival if you lead. So how strong is our group? I haven't really fought any of them," Naruto told him.

Kakashi answered him, "All of their fighting capability are well above Chuunin level. The only thing that usually holds a lot of them back is their mentality or the way that they think. Kiba's a real good fighter, but whenever he had an opponent down and out he would wait to see if they used all their techniques yet."

Naruto chuckled. Kind of what he used to do.

Kakashi continued, "He always wanted to know that he beat them when they're at their best. This is real reckless and it could get him killed one day, but somehow he's still alive. The only reason Lee isn't a jounin is because he couldn't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu. Ino doubted herself too much, even more than Sakura. When she believes in herself though, she is a force to be reckoned with. Hinata's the same way, except worse. While Ino can do some missions by herself, Hinata never had the courage to do anything by herself. It always seemed like she needed a team. She's a competent fighter though. If Chouji learned a little more instead of only his family jutsus, he would be jounin. You fought Sasuke already so you know how strong he is."

_Great, they're all pretty strong, _Naruto thought.

Ino went to Neji's side. "So what do you think of Naruto having the Kyuubi in him?" Ino asked him.

"He's the same person. From what I've read the Kyuubi was sealed in a baby. It's not like he just received it right now. If a person still isn't his friend after finding that out then I don't think they deserve to be his friend," Neji answered her.

"You're right. He's still the same Naruto," Ino said. She looked at Naruto who was ahead of her jumping through the braches with Kakashi. _Why didn't you tell us earlier Naruto?_

Sakura was looking at Sasuke and could tell that something was bothering him so she went to him, "Is something wrong Sasuke?"

He clenched his fist, "I have to kill him. Not only for me, but for Naruto and Yugito. She saved my life and I have to repay her. Itachi's there with them and he will die by my hands."

Sakura looked at him longer. There was something real wrong with Sasuke. His thirst for revenge was unnerving her.

"Umm, Sasuke, I think you should loosen up a little because you won't be in top condition if you're thinking about that too much," Sakura told him. He didn't respond to her, but just kept dodging the trees.

The group kept on jumping from tree to tree until sunset. They put up camp at night and slept.

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Early the next morning everyone was up.

"Alright guys come here for a moment and I'll tell you how we're going to do this," Kakashi told the group. They went to Kakashi and formed a small circle.

"Since we're pressing for time we need to split up and fight each Akatsuki member. There are seven Akatsuki members with a possible eight," Kakashi said.

"I thought there was nine," Chouji commented.

"Well, there was. Yugito killed one before they took her and Tsunade-sama also killed one a couple of months back. It takes a long time before finding a replacement. Akatsuki doesn't just recruit anybody, the person has to be very strong. So that's why there are seven with a possible eight," Kakashi told him.

Kakashi told the team about the enemy and who they would be facing.

"If there is another member. Sakura, you and Naruto will have to fight him or her. Since you two are the most versatile here I'm leaving him or her up to you. Sorry, I don't know if they have another member or not. I also do not have any information on the leader. Once you beat the enemy, if you still have strength left, please try and help the other groups," Kakashi said to the team.

Sakura saw something wrong with Kakashi's explanations. "Kakashi-sensei, not to be rude, but what would happen if they all attacked us at once? I've heard that they're kage level shinobis. If they all attack us at once, we'll have a very slim chance of winning."

"That's where you're wrong Sakura. They won't attack at once. You've got to remember who you are talking about. These are S-class criminals. They would never work together. At one sign of weakness they wouldn't hesitate to kill another. Each of them is in this for themselves. I wouldn't be surprise if they are all plotting something against one another right now because they're so close to their goal," Kakashi told her.

"Believe in one another and we will win this one," Kakashi told the group.

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"There is a group of shinobis outside of our hideout. What do you want us to do?" Zetsu said to the leader.

"How many are there?" said a man.

"Fourteen," Zetsu replied.

"They've sent fourteen shinobis to fight us? This must be a mockery. Fine, we'll dispatch this group effortlessly just to show how strong we are. You six, go and confront our friends," said the man.

"Time to kill, yea," said a voice.

The group immediately left.

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The group was outside of a small cave.

"So this is the place?" Kiba asked while looking up at the cave. They were about twenty feet away from it and it was about twenty feet high.

"Yes," Kakashi replied.

"They haven't noticed we're here then. We have the advantage," Kiba said.

"I'm certain that they know we're here. Remember, one of them can see very long distances," Kakashi said.

"Neji can you use your Byakugan and see how many members there are," Kakashi said.

"Well, there are 6 members coming out right now, but somehow I can't get pass a barrier. It's blocking my view. This is the first time that it has happened," Neji told him.

Hidan, Zetsu, Kisame, Itachi, Kazuku, and Diedara stepped out of the cave.

"Well, well, what do we have here? We're trying to get rid of Bijuu's to save the world and there are people that wants to stop us," Diedara said while looking down at the group.

"I should just kill you all at once, yeah. Come, I'll kill you all myself," Diedara said.

"Me and this girl here will fight you," Temari said.

"Oh, you're mad cause I got your little brother but come on, two on one. You can't be serious. All of you should fight me so it'll be fun, yeah," Diedara said mockingly.

"We will be enough," Temari said.

"Talking as if you're going to win," Diedara replied.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Temari told her.

"Fine follow me then, yeah," Diedara said. He started to jump to his left.

Temari and Tenten followed Diedara.

"So, is this how's it's going to be, copy-nin Kakashi?" Kisame said looking at Kakashi while holding his sword on his shoulder.

"Yes, we will fight all of you two on one," Kakashi replied.

"Insane, you know you guys can't win like that," Kisame told him.

"That's where you're wrong, we can win," Kakashi said.

"If you really think so. This is going to be easier than I thought. I'll agree with this little arrangement." He smiled, "So who's behind door lucky number two?" Kisame asked.

"Me and my teammate will, lead the way and let's go," Shino said. Kisame jumped from the entrance and went to the right. Shino and Hinata followed him.

"Heh heh, I get a girl. A cute one at that," Kisame said happily.

"They're in a hurry. That's why they're fighting us like this. Be careful, they know our techniques while most of you don't know theirs," Itachi said in his calm voice.

"Like I need to be careful around a bunch of kids," Hidan said said.

"If you want an early death then go ahead and do what you want," Itachi replied.

"What did you say?"

"I don't need to repeat myself twice," Itachi replied.

"Whatever, who's next on our team then?" Hidan said.

Kazuku stepped up, "I'll take these runts."

"You're going down. Me and my teammate will take care of you," Kiba said.

"Ahh man, I get the ugliest of the bunch. I was hoping that I get one of the girls, but I get a fat guy and a guy that resembles a dog," Kazuku said.

Chouji's eyes starting flaming when he heard the word 'fat.'

Akamaru barked at him.

"Let's see if your bite is as big as your bark," Kazuku said when he heard Akamaru.

"Shut up, just hurry so we can kill you and get this over with," Kiba said.

Kazuku jumped from the cliff and went straight. They followed Kazuku.

Zetsu jumped down from the cliff and slowly walked forward to the remaining team.

"We get to kill," Zetsu said, more to himself. "Yes we get to kill," Zetsu replied to himself.

"Should we kill?"

"Yes we shall."

"Who's fighting we?"

"Maybe white eyes. He has nice eyes."

"We shall eat him."

"Yes, eat him and get his eyes."

_I'm stuck fighting a psychopath. Greeeaat, _Ino thought.

Neji stepped up, "Lead the way."

Zetsu took off to the right, but slightly away from Kisame. Neji and Ino followed him.

"So it's you and me then, right little brother? You've been waiting for this moment your whole life, isn't that right?" Itachi asked in his calm voice.

"Just hurry up and lead the way," Sasuke replied with a glare. Itach was right though, Sasuke had been waiting for this moment his whole life. Itachi jumped off the cliff and went behind the cave.

Lee and Sasuke followed Itachi.

"Ohhh, I get the big prize then. I get copy-nin Kakashi. At least I don't have to fight kids," Hidan said.

"Lead the way Hidan," Kakashi said calmly.

"Fine, I think our leader wanted to get the Kyuubi container by himself anyways," Hidan said.

He led Kakashi and Shikamaru to the left.

There was no one left. Naruto and Sakura went inside the cave.

_**Note: the following battles are happening at approximately the same time.**_

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Diedara was jumping from tree to tree for about ten minutes when he stopped. Tenten and Temari stopped twenty feet away from him. The surroundings were filled with trees. _Hmph, Kakashi told us that he could change his projectiles direction. So, that's why he choose this location, to make it harder for other projectiles to hit him. It doesn't matter though, I can still hit him, _Tenten thought.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves, yeah. I'm glad I get to fight two girls. I have seen one of you before because I was the one who killed her brother, but the other I don't recall ever seeing. My name is Diedara, yeah," Diedara said.

"Name's Temari, I'll will get you for what you did to Gaara," she answered.

"Tenten, you should know the name of the person who's going to kill you," Tenten said.

"My, my aren't we an angry bunch? You know it's not good fighting with emotions, yeah," Diedara told them. He quickly reached into his pouch took out some clay.

_Are those his projectiles, _Tenten thought. She took out her sword and held it in her right hand. Temari took out her fan.

"Be careful," Temari said.

"I know that already," Tenten answered back.

Diedara started shaping the clay into what looked like a bird. He immediately dropped it and it expanded into a giant bird. Diedara jumped on it.

Tenten saw that he was going to take it to the sky so she threw some kunai's at him which he blocked. Diedara's bird started to fly just above the trees. He was running away from them. _Damn, I thought he was going to attack, _Tenten thought. Tenten and Temari gave chase. Just then they saw little clay birds flying at them. Tenten threw some kunai's and the birds exploded when they were it. _Explosive! _she thought. As she was thinking this more and more clay birds were flying at them. Tenten did her best to hit the targets before they could reach them, but she knew that she was losing. There were simply too many birds. Diedara was also getting further and futher away from them.

Tenten took out a huge scroll and quickly unwrapped it. After she did that she began throwing tens and tens of shurikens at once. She managed to hit all the little birds before it could reach them.

Diedara was on top of his bird making his special bomb. _Yeah, number 18._ He dropped it after he finished making it.

Temari saw what he dropped. She remembered that design from anywhere. Temari yelled at Tenten to not hit the target. She got out her fan and made a huge swing at the object. A big force of wind came from her fan and blew away the small object. About 5 seconds later it made a huge explosion about 50 feet away from them. In the explosion they had lost Diedara.

They raced through the woods in search for him. It was about 10 minutes when suddenly Temari saw something in front of them as she jumped forward. It was only for a second, but she was sure something was definitely there. She tried to grab a hold of Tenten and throw her back, but missed her arm. Because of trying to grab Tenten she also couldn't move back. They were caught in a very thin web faced first. Their faces were turned to each other.

"Nice going. You should have seen that," Temari said to Tenten.

Tenten was mad at herself. She knew it was her fault for getting trap.

"Well, if you saw it, instead of trying to rescue me you should have stayed behind so you could have gotten me free," Tenten said.

"I would have if I knew that it wasn't going to blow up the minute someone touched it," Temari answered.

Diedara jumped down from the tree and looked at them, "Now now, don't be arguing. Looks like I caught some bugs."

They struggled, but found out that it was useless.

"You won't be able to get free," Diedara said.

He looked to his left and saw three clay spiders about 30 feet coming towards them.

"I guess it's time. I'll get back to the base while my pets blow you girls up. Art is a bang, yeah," with that he made his clay bird and flew off.

Tenten looked behind Temari's head and saw three spiders slowly coming towards them.

"We've got to get out," she said.

"Easier said than done, what's behind me?" Temari asked her.

"Three clay spiders," Tenten answered.

They continued to calmly think of a way out. Both of them knew that panic would only get them killed. Tenten began to quickly look at her surroundings and then she saw something that might just help them. It would only give them one shot, but if it worked they would get out, Temari's left leg wasn't caught in the web. She saw the spiders getting closer.

"Temari, can you use your left leg?" she asked.

Temari moved her left leg, "Yeah, a little."

"You see my weapon pouch?" Tenten questioned.

Temari rolled her eyes down, "Yeah."

"Here's what we're going to do. You're going to kick the weapons up and hopefully I can catch one," she said.

She looked at Tenten and saw that her hands were caught in the web also, "With what?"

"I'll catch it with my tongue. So kick it to my face," Tenten said.

Temari looked at Tenten like she was crazy.

"Hurry we don't have much time," Tenten told her while looking at the advancing spiders.

"Alright," Temari said. She knew that they only had one chance so she would have to make this kick count.

"Ready on three. One, two, three," and Temari kicked Tenten's weapon pouch. Dozens of kunai's, shurikens, and exploding tags came out. She continued to look at Tenten viciously trying to catch a kunai or shuriken with her tongue. If it was a different circumstance Temari would have been laughing. Tenten barely managed to get the last kunai with her tongue. Temari gave a sigh.

"Now what?" Temari questioned.

"Stay still. I see a weak point near your face," Tenten told her. She couldn't speak properly because of the kunai, but Temari understood what she was saying.

Temari didn't like the idea of Tenten throwing a kunai at her face with only her tongue, "Wait a minute."

"No time," and Tenten fling the kunai with her tongue at Temari's face. It hit the web and Temari was free.

She looked back and saw that the three spiders barely missed her. Temari also saw that Tenten wasn't freed yet so she grabbed one of the kunais' that was on the ground and freed Tenten.

"Whew that was close," Temari said.

"Yes, it was," Tenten answered.

"Let's give chase again shall we? This time look where you're going," Temari told Tenten.

Tenten got a little angry, but she knew Temari was right. It was her fault for getting them caught. They turned around and began their way back to the hideout. Diedara had stated that he was going back so they didn't have to search in a different direction. When they got about 20 feet of the web Tenten threw three kunai's at the spider and they gave a great explosion. Temari already knew why she did this. It was because Diedara would be suspicious if his trap didn't go off.

"Here's the plan, I'll be heading left. Go after him and make him come my way. We'll trap him and get him off of that bird. When you see things getting cut down, move out of the way immediately. He should be easier to handle once he's off the bird," Temari told her.

Tenten nodded and Temari began taking off to the left. Tenten increased her speed so that she could catch up to Diedara.

It was about 5 minutes before she saw him.

Diedara was smiling to himself. He had just killed the two stupid girls. _Yeah, they were stupid for fighting us 2 on 1, _he thought to himself. Then all of the sudden he felt something heading straight towards him. It was a large shuriken. He tried to dodge it, but it was too late and it cut off his left arm. Diedara looked down to see that one of the girl was throwing weapons at him. _So they freed themselves. I should killed them right there instead._ Shurikens and kunai kept coming at him, but his enormous bird was blocking it with its wings. _The shurikens are coming mostly from the left side. She's trying to make me go right. Guess I'll go left then._ With that he turned his bird left.

_Excellent, _Tenten thought to herself. Diedara had just fallen into her trap. She knew that if she tried to make him go left, he wouldn't go left and instead go right. But, if she tried to make him go to the right, he would go to the left left.

Temari was traveling very quickly. When she got to the place where she thought he would come she took out her fan and bit her thumb, "Summoning no jutsu." A small cat on a sytche appeared.

"Ready Kamatari," Temari said to the cat and it nodded its head. They waited for about a minute when Temari saw a big bird coming their way.

"Okay Kamatari, here we go," and Temari waved her fan. Suddenly the cat began sailing towards the bird. Everything caught in its path was immediately cut down.

Diedara looked below and saw that the trees were getting cut down at a rapid pace. He knew that he was in trouble and tried to steer his bird out of the way, but he was too late. The wind had cut the bird into pieces. It only managed to cut his other arm off and he began falling towards the ground. Diedara figured that the jutsu probably lost its cutting ability after going through his bird. He landed on his feet and looked up. Diedara saw that Temari was in front of him.

"It's over Diedara, you don't have any arms," Temari told him.

He looked back and saw that Tenten was behind him.

"Give up and I promise I'll make this quick," Tenten said to him.

_Guess this is where it ends. Might as well go out with a bang, _Diedara thought to himself.

She immediately jumped at him with her sword to slice his head off. As she came closer to him she could see that Diedara was expanding really fast.

"NO!!!" Temari screamed and she swung her fan at Tenten. This blew Tenten in a different direction. Just as she was blown in a different direction Diedara had blown up.

Temari immediately went to where Tenten was at. When she got there she could see a completely bloody Tenten.

"Tenten, you are alive?" Temari asked her. She didn't want to ask if she was okay because she knew that Tenten wasn't.

Tenten coughed out some blood.

_She's alive, _Temari thought to herself. She knew that they were too far from a hospital so she had to get Tenten to Sakura as quickly as possible. _Hopefully Sakura isn't fighting anyone yet_. She put Tenten on her shoulders and began carrying her.

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Shino and Hinata followed Kisame until they reached a big open field.

Kisame took out his sword, "Guess this is where I'll be burying you two."

Hinata got into her fighting stance and activated her Byakugan. Shino raised his hands up in front of him.

Kisame did a few hand seals, "Suiton Bakusui Shoha (Exploding Water Shockwave)." A huge amount of water came out of Kisame's mouth and covered the field.

"So, are we ready then?" he asked the two.

**_Jutsu description:_**

**Suiton Bakusui Shoha: Exploding Water Shockwave**- (C-rank) A jutsu that creates a massive amount of water. This ninjutsu is in the manga.


End file.
